Free as in beer
onsdag, 23. maj 2007Følgende er et gæsteindlæg fra Jakob. God fornøjelse.
Vi har undret os over udtrykket et par gange … jeg har i hvert fald, selvom jeg havde en anelse. Anyways, jeg wikiede det lige:
Free as in beer refers to things which are available at no monetary cost (like free beer at a party). By contrast, the expressions free as in speech, free as in freedom, and free as in rights, refer to something which is free of any and all restrictions, as in the freedom of speech. Since the advent of the free software movement, these terms have entered frequent use for categorising computer programs according to the licenses and legal restrictions that cover them, such as copyright and patents. Both this expression and the term gratis are used to distinguish freeware (gratis software) from
free software.
Og galskaben skyldes, at man på engelsk mangler ord til skelnen mellem gratis og fri:
Gratis versus Libre is the distinction between zero price and freedom. Gratis is slowly becoming more common in the English language. However, libre has not, and no English adjective signifies freedom only. This distinction is often important in dealing with laws concerning the use of information, such as copyright and patents. The terms are often used in the free software and open source communities, as well as the broader free culture movement.
Så fik vi det på plads!