Fake Free Software is software which is claims to be free - but which actually is the subject of a variety of restrictions.

Fake Free Software is common.

Some of the most famous "fake free software" licenses are those of the so-called ["Free Software Foundation].

While this organization makes the claim that its software is "Free as in Freedom", its associated software is actually copyrighted and distributed under [various licenses] - licenses that all fail to grant back all the freedoms taken away by default by the [Berne convention] - and thus place numerous constraints the actions of users.

Fake Free Software promotes commercial traffic in software.

It does this my prohibiting redistribution binary-only variants. Businesses often use binary-only distributions to protect their intellectual property.

They need to do this if they want to avoid giving their work to their competitors - since legal protection is often ineffectual.

It also does this by insisting that composite works be distributed under the GPL. Businneses must often combine works under a variety of licenses to remain competitive.

Consequently a number of organisations are able to make money from their software by adopting dual licensing schemes - using a GNU license and a commercial license.

For example, [MySQL] is licensed this way - see the [MySQL Licensing Policy].

The approach is described here.

Other organisations have adopted a similar approach - e.g.: [Artifex], [Myxaml], [Reservoir Labs], [Artpol Software], [MsgConnect] - and so on.

The GPL says:

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price.

The most recent version of the GPL license is even more restrictive than its predecessors.

Fortunately, Fake Free Software is usually easy to identify. It comes with license conditions and copyright notices.

Fake Free Software can be contrasted with Genuine Free Software - software which is genuinely free to all users.