On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 22:40:49 -0400, Gardner Buchanan <gbuchana@rogers.com> wrote: | Dave Fawthrop wrote: | | > Just to point out that "free as in beer," must be a purely American | > expression which means nothing to the English, and I am unable to work out | > exactly why beer should be free. | | Not at all. It is an expression common amongst the "open source" | community world-wide. "Free as in beer" is just a flippant expression | to disambiguate free of charge from free of legal encumbrance. The | matched pair are: | | Free as in speach -- No technical, legal or ethical encumbrance. | Free as in beer -- No charge. | | Nearly all of PG is free as in speach. | | "Free as in beer" also has the extra connotation of a free thing | that really isn't or should not be free -- maybe like that first | "free" shot of drugs. Only in *some* parts of the US. What you are saying is that the rest of the world does not matter and can be ignored :-( -- Dave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> "Intelligent Design?" my knees say *not*. "Intelligent Design?" my back says *not*.