I got two complaints about the wording of the PG main page. In
particular I refer to these two paragraphs:
"All Project Gutenberg ebooks are free as in _free beer_ for anyone
living in the United States: You may download all our ebooks for your
personal use for free.
"Most Project Gutenberg ebooks are also free as in _free speech_: You
may copy them, give them away and use them in any way you like. See the
license page for details."
This wording, while a bit on the "slang" side, has proved very effective
and I got much less questions of the kind "May I download Moby Dick and
post it on my side which is about fishing?" than before.
Also, I like it for `sentimental' reasons, because it is the slogan of
the Free Software Movement. But this may be just a pet of mine.
One person complained about the wording on the grounds that "There ain't
no such thing as a free beer." (I don't think we have to consider this one.)
A different complaint reached me a few days ago:
> It is not an issue of understanding the meaning of the phrase, but
> rather the appropriateness of it. It is inappropriate to give the
> appearance of encouraging drinking, when many of the people using the
> web site are junior or senior high students.
I personally think this claim is bogus and I told the claimant so. But,
as I'm living in a town that is proud for its cathedral and its beer
(not necessarily in that order) I may be prejudiced. I therefore ask for
opinions.
More: If we decide to change the wording, we need a new one ("Free
lunch" would anger the libertarian even more :-) ) that conveys the idea
that PG is not just a free book download service.
--
Marcello Perathoner
webmaster(a)gutenberg.org
