I don&#x27;t agree with your assessment.  Although they encourage people not to use the term &quot;Intellectual Property&quot;, I think that&#x27;s from the perspective that ideas are not property.  This is not at odds with (my understanding of) the legal definition of IP (the name notwithstanding).  The property in IP, is the monopoly it affords, not the idea.  You can&#x27;t own an idea (i.e. it is not legal to do so).  You <i>can</i> own the government granted monopoly for implementing that idea.<p>The FSF is pro-copyright and pro-trademark.  You can literally own software.  In fact, one of the things the GPL makes very clear is that once you have given&#x2F;sold someone the software, you can&#x27;t suddenly revoke their rights to use it in any way they see fit.  In fact the FSF is very outspoken about the dangers of using services which remove that right (for example ebooks where the seller can suddenly revoke your right to read the book).<p>When you receive software under the GPL, you <i>own</i> that copy.  It is literally yours.  You can modify it.  You can study it.  You can give it or sell it (for any amount of money) to someone else.  Not only that, but you do <i>not</i> own the copyrights.  The copyrights are owned by someone else and are not transferred with the software.  So this means that you can not change the license, even with a derived work.<p>They like it that way.  They do not want to change the ability to own software or own copyrights.  The GPL does not subvert the notion of software as property -- it enforces the normal rights you would have if it were physical property.