Subject: Re: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2001 00:47:14 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3213910032404080@naggum.net> * kaz@ashi.footprints.net (Kaz Kylheku) | The most common definition used in the consumer marketplace is that free | means you don't have to pay. Since you can obtain GNU-type software that | way, this interpretation holds true. No, it does not. If I get some gizmo for free, it is mine to use, abuse, destroy, take apart and use the parts for something else, etc. If I get some GNU GPL'ed source code for "free", if I take it apart and use the parts for something else, I suddenly owe somebody else something. This is _not_ what "free" means. If I modify the free gizmo and find a way to make some better gizmo, I owe nobody anything. If I do the same with a GNU GPL'ed program, I must give the new, better idea back to whoever gave it to me for "free". I think there is an old idiom, "Indian giver" or something, which applies to people who do not _really_ give things away. | For instance, a GNU program is *at least* as free as Internet Explorer, | which Microsoft claims is free for download. Well, yes, as long as you do not use the source code, which is supposedly the whole point with the GNU GPL. /// -- Norway is now run by a priest from the fundamentalist Christian People's Party, the fifth largest party representing one eighth of the electorate. -- Carrying a Swiss Army pocket knife in Oslo, Norway, is a criminal offense.