“I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it.”

— Richard Stallman

1980s, GNU Manifesto (1985)
Context: I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an institution where such things are done for me against my will.
So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent me from giving GNU away.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it." by Richard Stallman?

Richard Stallman 130

American software freedom activist, short story writer and … 1953

Related quotes

“There are people who actually like programming. I don't understand why they like programming.”

Rasmus Lerdorf (1968) Danish programmer and creator of PHP

Itconversations.com http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3298.html

“I have something that I call my Golden Rule. It goes something like this: "Do unto others twenty-five percent better than you expect them to do unto you."”

Linus Pauling (1901–1994) American scientist

… The twenty-five percent is for error.
Pauling's reply to an audience question about his ethical system, following his lecture circa 1961 at Monterey Peninsula College, in Monterey, California.
1990s

“The Golden Rule works like gravitation.”

Charles Fletcher Dole (1845–1927) Unitarian minister, speaker, and writer

Cleveland Address, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

“I don't think I'm very much like anyone else, really. I'm sure there are aspects of other actors that I share, but I don't see anybody else and go, "Damn, they stole my thing." I'm me, and I like that there are people who have an appreciation for that.”

Zooey Deschanel (1980) American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter

As quoted in " From A to Zooey http://www.fedge.net/~zdeschanel/articles/bostonglobe-2-23-03.html" in The Boston Globe (23 February 2003).

“I write movies about mavericks, about people who break rules, and I don't like movies about people who are pulverised for being mavericks.”

Quentin Tarantino (1963) American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor

Virgin.Net interview http://www.virgin.net/movies/interviews/quentin.html

“I live by the golden rule: Treat others as you'd want them to treat you. The religious right wants to tell people how to live.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

Interview in Playboy (November 1999)
Context: Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business. I live by the golden rule: Treat others as you'd want them to treat you. The religious right wants to tell people how to live.