Gratis versus Libre

Encyclopedia : G : GR : GRA : Gratis versus Libre

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Free beer redirects here. See Vores Øl for the open source beer.

Gratis versus Libre is the distinction between no cost and freedom, a distinction not made by the word free in the English language.

This distinction is of utmost importance in dealing with information as property. The phrase is derived from Spanish.

Gratis

Gratis is an adjective in Latin and various Romance and Germanic languages meaning "free," in the sense that one does not have to pay for some good or service (free of charge).

Libre

Libre is a word in various Romance languages, e.g. Spanish and French (descended from the Latin word līber) that denotes the state of being free, as in "having freedom". GNU programmers often talk about free as in free speech (libre) and free as in free beer (gratis), as the word free in English does not distinguish between these meanings. Free software (with a capital F) usually means the former.

Free as in beer versus free as in speech

In hacker slang, gratis is typically referred to as free as in beer while libre is referred to as free as in speech.

Free as in beer refers to things which are available at no monetary cost (like free beer at a party). While one is permitted to use the object (i.e. drink the beer) without payment, one does not necessarily receive any rights (i.e. take the beer home) or ownership. It can be contrasted with the expressions free as in speech, free as in freedom, or free as in rights, which refer to something which is free of restrictions, as in the freedom of speech. One is permitted to use the object, reproduce it, repurpose it, and generally do what one will with it; usually the only restrictions applied are that credit be given to any entity that contributed to any resulting object and that such object be free as in speech as well. (i.e. Abraham Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation, and people may use it any way they see fit, such as in a manifesto, so long as Abraham Lincoln receives credit for the Proclamation and that anyone may use the manifesto any way they see fit as well.)

Since the advent of the free software movement, these terms have entered frequent use for categorising computer programs according to the licenses and legal fetters that cover them, and both this expression and the term gratis are used to distinguish freeware (gratis software) from free software.

See also

• TANSTAAFL - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
• Libre software

External links and references

• [Stallman's discussion of FreeAsInBeer]

 

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