I thought it was free as in speech not free as in beer? So if it costs a beer then isn’t it still free (as in speech)? Or is this a OSI vs FSF difference?
Comment on Evil
superkret@feddit.org 3 months ago
The FSF also lists any software as non-free which uses the beer license (use the software in any way you want, and should you ever meet the author, pay them a beer).
Dave@lemmy.nz 3 months ago
laurelraven@lemmy.zip 3 months ago
According to the FSF, it’s only free if you tell people what they can do with it, but only very specific things
Dave@lemmy.nz 3 months ago
As someone else commented, it appears that the license isn’t free because when you share it the new person now owes the original author a beer if they ever meet them, so the middle person isn’t free to do whatever they like because of the ongoing obligation being forced on their users.
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 3 months ago
You’re allowed to charge before you give access to the software, but then can’t restrict the people you give it to giving it to more people. The beer licence sounds like those people would be on the hook for beer, too.
Dave@lemmy.nz 3 months ago
Ah yes that makes sense.
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I was thinking the same thing, does anyone have any context as to why the Beer license is not considered free? If I’m to guess it probably has something to do with copyleft-restrictions (or lack thereof).
ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 3 months ago
Is it really contrarian to like the FSF these days? I mean people seem to hate Stallman too but both are pretty important in the history and maintenance of free software
JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 months ago
There are definitely aspects of FSF that deserve criticism, but I don’t think their approved licenses is one of them. Licenses approved by both OSI and FSF are the ones people should be using.
Relevant Open Source SE question about “crayon licenses” for the curious.
ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 3 months ago
Yeah, personally I think the copyleft the GPL grants is really powerful and it’s the only license that gets used in my projects.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 months ago
Same here, unless I’m making something truly trivial. Even half baked POCs I know I won’t finish or go anywhere I slap AGPL on.
SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 3 months ago
I can’t stand beer - is there a rum & Coke license?