Taking Back Control: A Practical Introduction to Libre Software and Digital Sovereignty

What follows is an account of why the terms on which software is held determine, in consequential ways, the terms on which everything else is conducted.

• Introduction
• Democracy
• Commons
• Licenses
• Infrastructure
• Sovereignty
• Ecosystem

Closed software

withholds its source and, with it, any claim to autonomy. You operate within constraints you cannot inspect, under terms you cannot negotiate, subject to decisions you cannot influence.

Open source

grants visibility while reserving authority. The code is observable; the governance remains proprietary.

Libre software

guarantees the freedoms to use, study, modify, and redistribute — without condition and without revocation.

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