> the term "free software" was coined in or before 1989, when the GPLv1 was > published by the free software foundation [1].
a) the group "free software" is nothing but a combination of an adjective and a substantive, the adjective qualifying the substantive b) qualifying a substantive with "free" has been in use long before the creation of "software" c) "free software" is in no way an unique term or used uniquely by the FSF -- the sentence you are quoting very clearly proves that by saying ""When we speak of free software" ie, the term is used in a certain sense in a certain context (the GPL) -- but there's no way, the GPL is globally applicable ot the authors are in any way authorized to rule the use of those very common and widely used words in a very common grammatical construction. to conclude the discussion: sebastian would be right _only_ if somewhere in the discussion all participants had agreed to put the software in question under the GPL or at least use the GPL's definition. i can't recall, that has ever happend -- insofar any claim to use the GPL's definition as the solely applicable one is not justified! it is understandable to think in the trems of the GPL but it is not the only way to think. thus, if any author claims his/her software to be "free software", he/she is entitled to it -- only if he/she accepted the GPL's definition as the binding definition of the term, his/her software has to meet the requirements laid down in the GPL. > but arne, whilst i hugely admire your software chops and appreciate the > work you've done, i don't know, what exactly you are talking about, but thanks anyway :-) > i think you're wrong to insist that others join you because you think > free software means only "free as in beer". i don't. as i hopefully made clear, i think the meaning of "free" (or "free software") has to be defined before accusing somebody of misuse and that definition was (and is) still lacking. free might be as in "beer" or "speech" or "nothing to do" (and those of us coming from eg the former communist parts of europe, will remember that not only the meaning of "free" might differ but even the extend involved), but that is not clear beforehand and certainly not implicit, even if most of us tend to think in therms of the GPL. _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
