It’s not as complex as you’re choosing to make it. When someone tells you, “There’s free beer at Oktoberfest,” is your first thought that the beer has no moneta

It’s not as complex as you’re choosing to make it. When someone tells you, “There’s free beer at Oktoberfest,” is your first thought that the beer has no monetary cost, or that the beer is unencumbered by particular legal restrictions? Now someone tells you, “There’s free speech at Oktoberfest.” Is your first thought that there’s no monetary cost to expression, or that the expression is unencumbered by particular legal restrictions? (Happily, Oktoberfest has both.) >I'm just wondering in what context or culture beer is considered free (gratis). When beer is described as “free,” it’s understood to be gratis. When speech is described as free, it’s understood to be libre. These are used as examples for more ambiguous situations, since software can be one, the other, both, or neither. >Why not say "free as in beer, not free as in lunch"? For three reasons: 1. “Free for lunch” is a way more common phrase, and it already means “unencumbered by schedule or previous commitments.” 2. “Free lunch” is already part of a more common phrase which states that a free lunch cannot exist, ruining the effectiveness. 3. Beer and lunch are both expected to be gratis, not libre. Exceptions (http://freebeer.org/ http://freebeer.org/) have to explain themselves over that hill.