Gratis versus Libre is the distinction between 'zero price' (gratis) and 'freedom' (libre). Gratis appears in many English dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English However, libre usually does not at present, and no English adjective signifies freedom only. This distinction is often important in dealing with laws concerning the use of information, such as copyright and patents. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an 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. The free software community is an informal term referring to the users and developers of Free software as well as supporters of the Free software movement. The free culture movement is a Social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify Creative works, using the Internet as well as other Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer. The verb license or grant license means to give permission The noun license is the document demonstrating that permission Both this expression and the term gratis are used to distinguish freeware (gratis software) from free software. Freeware is computer Software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified

Gratis

Gratis is the plural ablative form of the first declension noun "grātia" in Latin and used as an adjective in various Romance and Germanic languages (such as Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish) meaning "for nothing," in the sense that one does not have to pay for some good or service (free of charge), even though the good or service has value. In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the

This is sometimes expressed in the phrase, "free as in free beer", as distinct from "free as in free speech".

Libre

Libre is a word in various Romance languages, such as Spanish and French (descended from the Latin word līber), that denotes the state of being free, as in "having freedom". The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Freedom, or the idea of being free is a broad concept that Members of the free software community often talk about free as in free speech (libre) and free as in free beer (gratis, gratuit), as the word free in English does not distinguish between these meanings. The free software community is an informal term referring to the users and developers of Free software as well as supporters of the Free software movement. Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without Censorship or Limitation. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States "Free software" usually means the former. Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified

See also

• Alternative terms for free software

External links and references

• Stallman's discussion of FreeAsInBeer
• 'Wired' on the first open source beer
• Free, as in Beer by Lawrence Lessig
• "Free as in speech and beer" book by Darren Wershler-Henry
• Say "Libre" and discussion regarding knowledge and learning resources. Alternative terms for free software have been a controversial issue among Free software users from the late 1990s onwards