Gratis versus libre: Difference between revisions

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Gratis versus libre is the distinction between "for zero price" (gratis) and "freedom" (libre). Gratis appears in many English dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary. However, libre does so less commonly, and no English adjective signifies "liberty" exclusively and as distinct from "at no monetary cost". This distinction is often important in dealing with laws concerning the use of information, such as copyright and patents. The terms are often used in the free software and open source communities, as well as the broader free culture movement, to categorize computer programs according to the licenses and legal restrictions that cover them. Both this expression and the term gratis are used to distinguish freeware (gratis software) from freedom (libre) software.

Richard Stallman summarised the difference in a slogan: "Think free as in free speech, not free beer."^[1]

Gratis

Gratis is the plural ablative and dative form of the first-declension noun grātia in Latin and used as an adjective in various Romance and Germanic languages (for example, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Afrikaans, Indonesian) meaning "for free", "free of charge", "at zero cost", in the sense that one does not have to pay for some good or service, even though the good or service may have value.

Libre

Libre (Template:Pron-en in English) is a neologism adopted from the various Romance languages, such as Spanish and French, ultimately descending from the Latin word līber. It denotes "the state of being free", as in "having freedom" or "liberty".

"Free as in beer" vs "Free as in speech"

In software development, where the cost of mass production is relatively small, it is common for developers to make software available at no cost. One of the early and basic forms of this model is called freeware. With freeware, software is licensed free of charge for regular use, the developer does not gain any monetary compensation.

With the advent of the free software movement, license schemes were created to give developers more freedom in terms of code sharing, commonly called open source or FOSS. As the English adjective "free" does not distinguish between "free of charge" and "liberty", the phrases "free as in beer" (gratis, freeware) and "free as in speech" (libre, open source) were adopted.

These phrases have become common, along with gratis and libre, in the software development and computer law fields for encapsulating this distinction.

Wikipedia is both gratis and libre.

References

^ Lessig, Lawrence (September 2006). "Free, as in beer". Wired. Retrieved 2009-03-18.

Free as in Speech and Beer, book by Darren Wershler-Henry
"Say 'Libre'", and related discussion regarding knowledge and learning resources.
Stallman's discussion of FreeAsInBeer

[1] Lessig, Lawrence (September 2006). "Free, as in beer". Wired. Retrieved 2009-03-18.

[1]

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 With the advent of the [[free software]] movement, license schemes were created to give developers more freedom in terms of code sharing, commonly called [[Open source software|open source]] or [[Free and open source software|FOSS]]. As the [[English language|English]] adjective "free" does not distinguish between "free of charge" and "liberty", the phrases "free as in beer" (gratis, freeware) and "free as in speech" (libre, open source) were adopted.
-These phrases have become common, along with gratis and libre, in the software development and computer law fields for encapsulating this distinction. Thus [[Wikipedia]] is both gratis <i>and</i> libre.
+These phrases have become common, along with gratis and libre, in the software development and computer law fields for encapsulating this distinction.
+[[Wikipedia]] is both gratis <em>and</em> libre.
 ==See also==