Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 18:59:29 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: jmb@hub.freebsd.org (Jonathan M. Bresler) Cc: brett@lariat.org, dkelly@hiwaay.net, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Your misconceptions about the GPL Message-ID: <199911231859.LAA02592@usr06.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <19991123111417.ADEA714BEC@hub.freebsd.org> from "Jonathan M. Bresler" at Nov 23, 99 03:14:17 am
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> as a swag (silly wild as guess) one might say: > > free speech refers to a constraint on the powers of > government. > > free code refers to a constraint on the powers of companies. It's a definitional thing. What RMS is really talking about is not freedom, but liberty. The reason he has to abuse the word "free" is the negative connotations associated with "liberated", as in "The corporal liberated these supplies from the enemy" or "the government liberated the FICA from your paycheck", or "the angry mob liberated the murderers as well as the political prisoners from the bastille". These connotations actually derive from the writs of mandamus issued to captains of what were, essentially, pirate ships (but because of the writs, "they're _our_ pirates"). This practice began in 1861, if memory serves me correctly. Similarly, a libertine is "a person who is unrestrained by convention or morality" or "a freethinker, especially in religious matters". There are addition connotations, which are really the result of media fabrications regarding public protests during the women's liberation movement (this is well documented; most protests were nowhere near as belligerent as they were portrayed in the media, for example, the original "bra burning" incident was really a "throw the bras in a 50 gallon trash can, but don't set them on fire" incident). Finally, there is the association with the libertarian party; a similar association is why its citizens tend to call the U.S. a democracy, when in fact it is a republic (the establishing documents specifically guarantee a "republican form of government"). Whether these connotation is deserved or not is irrelevant: they exist. People wouldn't really rally behind "liberated software", but, in the U.S. especially, "free" has no such negative connotations. It's unfortunate that he is damaging the word "free" through his misuse of it. Maybe he's telling us that the wind is more than six points off dead ahead... 8-). Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199911231859.LAA02592>