I contribute to the FSF and agree with the sentiment, but the text has a very opinionated tone and I would prefer to see the author's name and title with the text.
I think proprietary software certainly has much potential for harm, particularly when it's unmaintained or defective by design, but that's kind of a jump to get to outright malicious. I think most people would define malware in that sense.
Comments
I think it's very important to note the source of this document, as well as any biases that source may have.
For example, this piece was written by GNU, which is by and large a proponent of free software.
I contribute to the FSF and agree with the sentiment, but the text has a very opinionated tone and I would prefer to see the author's name and title with the text.
I'm gonna guess rms.
I think proprietary software certainly has much potential for harm, particularly when it's unmaintained or defective by design, but that's kind of a jump to get to outright malicious. I think most people would define malware in that sense.
My general impression is that RMS' definition of malware is anything that is bad, by any measure, for the user.
Mal, bad, in the latin.