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Argh, stop saying that Stallman is redefining "free". Fine, "Guber" is all that anyone ever hears and the top comment and the most important thing to discuss ab

by jordigh 10y ago

Argh, stop saying that Stallman is redefining "free". Fine, "Guber" is all that anyone ever hears and the top comment and the most important thing to discuss about all the other points that Stallman is raising against Uber (sarcasm), but there isn't anything non-free about the GPL. Having laws that forbid others from removing freedom isn't itself non-free. Freedom is always limited by the rights of others. Always. You are not "free" to punch people in the face or "free" to be a harmful member of society. Copyleft is just a way to ensure that you can never take away others' freedom, to secure the rights of people other than yourself. It is not a redefinition of freedom.

radmuzom 10y ago
The top comment in an article is often a digression when HN does not like the article.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
pjlegato 10y ago
In the English language, saying that a product or service is "free" is commonly understood (and has always been understood) to mean "gratis, free as in beer." Stallman has spent the past several decades trying to get people to redefine "free" to primarily mean "libre" in the case of technology, a far less common usage of the word "free" in English. This is what people mean when they say Stallman is trying to redefine "free."
- jordigh 10y ago
  > This is what people mean when they say Stallman is trying to redefine "free." I don't think so. I usually hear this argument from weak free license advocates who specifically object to the GPL, not to calling free software "free". Even anti-GPL advocates like OpenBSD and FreeBSD call their software free, because they're both older than the term "open source" and because they think they're free-er than the GPL, and they really do mean "unfettered" when they say "free". Everyone knows that "free" has two meanings, and free software isn't even a term that Stallman coined. It was called that before he came along, because there was no other name for open source. He just insisted on it.

by jordigh 10y ago

radmuzom 10y ago

The top comment in an article is often a digression when HN does not like the article.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

pjlegato 10y ago

In the English language, saying that a product or service is "free" is commonly understood (and has always been understood) to mean "gratis, free as in beer." Stallman has spent the past several decades trying to get people to redefine "free" to primarily mean "libre" in the case of technology, a far less common usage of the word "free" in English. This is what people mean when they say Stallman is trying to redefine "free."

jordigh 10y ago
> This is what people mean when they say Stallman is trying to redefine "free." I don't think so. I usually hear this argument from weak free license advocates who specifically object to the GPL, not to calling free software "free". Even anti-GPL advocates like OpenBSD and FreeBSD call their software free, because they're both older than the term "open source" and because they think they're free-er than the GPL, and they really do mean "unfettered" when they say "free". Everyone knows that "free" has two meanings, and free software isn't even a term that Stallman coined. It was called that before he came along, because there was no other name for open source. He just insisted on it.