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That’s generally the definition of free, yes. You might have a different definition, but it’s certainly not a common one.

• nobody9999 5y ago
  >That’s generally the definition of free, yes. You might have a different definition, but it’s certainly not a common one. Do you, given the environment of "surveillance capitlism" on the 'net, believe that PII is without value? I'd posit that if there's an exchange of value (the book for PII), then it's not a "free" transaction. And you're correct, that's not the "common" definition. However, ISTM that unless we use more precise definitions, we're unlikely to change perceptions around the gathering of PII that would have been far beyond anything the Stasi[0] could have dreamed. And while my comment appears to have been interpreted as an attack on the author (it wasn't), I still believe it's an important issue to address. I'd note (as I did in an edit to my original comment) that the author does make all his works available for free (by my use of the word) via github. I hoped that my comment would spur thought on the part of other HN readers WRT surveillance capitalism. I suppose you could argue that it's off-topic to reference this, but such activity (by Leanpub and Gumroad, not the author) is becoming so widespread that no one seems to be considering it at all. That's a mistake in my view. Hence my comment. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi