[discuss] shifts in IANA/accountability discussion: your thoughts?

Barry Shein bzs at world.std.com
Sat Jun 21 16:54:05 UTC 2014


Isn't all this just digging deeper and deeper into the old "free as in
beer" versus "free as in speech" hole?

How about for "free as in speech" we use libre, and free as in beer we
use no-cost. Or pick something for those, anything but "free" and
"free".

It still begs some way to distinguish "free" as in "miraculously
provisioned" (sunlight) versus "free" as in no end-user fees for at
least basic access, like a walk in a public park (someone pays for the
park's upkeep.)

Given some actually useful terminology one could begin to chart out
the current state of affairs perhaps by nation or other divisions, and
specify goals, futures, and measure or at least define progress or
regress.

But getting stuck in a semantic rut is rarely productive.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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