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February 28, 2006
Free as in beer
Free as in beer: I was always a bit confused by that phrase, when trotted out in the middle of a conversation to mean something -- I always had to translate it as "let's see, they contrast that with 'free speech', so which one do they think is unfettered by any contract and which do they think is no-cost again -- beer has no contract, but then again maybe they meant someone buying you a beer, or maybe it was 'no such thing as a free lunch' kind of thing", and by that point the conversation was already two paragraphs further in and I was 'way behind. ;-) Anyway, guess I wasn't the only one to not see that label as intuitive... here a group of students in Copenhagen give away the recipe for the beer they market. I guess that means you can change the recipe and brew it yourself differently, but hold it, you could always add a shot to make it a boilermaker or blend it with another beer to make a black-and-tan, so maybe they mean "free as in speech" with this, or... oh, no, there I go again.... ;-)
Posted by John Dowdell at February 28, 2006 3:49 PM