Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com>]

In article <eFhM7.46638$RG1.24555639@news1.rdc1.sfba.home.com>, tmoran@acm.org
says...
>
>>whereas the FSF "free" is an abbreviation for "free of certain contractual
>>restrictions".
>  Or perhaps it means "free" in the same sense as "The homeless are
>free of worry over mortgages or rent."

More in the sense of the old saying "Its a free country". (Well, 200+ years old
here in the US anyway).

Its not saying that we can help ourselves to anything in the country without
paying. Its also not saying that the country itself is free for the taking by
anyone who wants to own it. Its also not saying that the leaders of the country
are free to impose whatever terms they want on us. It is saying the we (in this
case, the "users") have a very large amount of freedom with this country,
tempered mainly by prohibitions against depriving anyone else of that same
freedom.

---
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