On Tuesday 09 January 2007 03:46, Patrick McNamara wrote: > > Oh, and should Patrick McNamara and the OHF follow suit? Asking > > him to change OHF to something else is about like asking Traversal > > to change its name. Some things are much harder to do, so this is > > entirely up to him and his board members. But I just thought I'd > > mention the idea. > > That would be somewhat difficult right now as it would require filing > and amendment to the articles of incorporation which are currently > working their way through the cog that is the state goverment of > Texas. > > I certainly understand RMS' postion on "free" vs "open" and generally > agree with him, though I differ on some points. I am a bit more > pragmatic with an undertone of idealism. Still, I have concerns > about using the word "free" in the title of a hardware project or the > Foundation. While it does pose less of an issue than "open" in terms > of confusing meanings, the big confusion it does have, between free > beer and free speech, causes significant issue with hardware. In the > general sense we will never be producing free as in beer hardware. > This means that any packaging or press materials that reference "free > hardware" will cause serious problems in the general problem. In the > lawsuit happy US, I can certain see someone saying "It said there was > free hardware in the box. I didn't get anything free. I'll sue for > false advertising!" So yes that may be an exageration, but only a > little.
That's an excellent point. Perhaps we should refer to "Free Design" hardware? That would make more sense in other ways as well, in that you normally have the right to change a physical object that is in your possession anyway, and that in practice this is mainly about the designs being created collaboratively and out in the open than about the actual hardware being hammered together in a publicly accessible workshop. Lourens
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