> I wish they wouldn't call Plucker "freeware"; it's free software.
More specifically, "Free Software". I've been dealing with these, and similar issues lately, with the recent discovery of 4 commercial companies using pilot-link directly in their commercial "non-free" products. There is this mentality that "GPL Software" or "Free Software" or "Open Source Software" is equivalent to "freeware" or "shareware", and that couldn't be farther from the truth. Calling something "free software" is a very short jump to "freeware" in the eyes of most of the general public, who doesn't understand all this "licensing confusion". The trend I'm seeing (and I may write an article for the media or a position paper on this, if I get more research done on it) is that companies are using Free Software to save themselves money, increasing profits, by using the hard work of others, but never contribute back (*cough* Bluefish), and then end up laying off people by the dozens, because they are no longer needed ("We found some free software on the web that does what we're paying you to write, so we don't need you anymore. You're fired."). The net result it that the economy rises, because companies are blatently breaking the law, violating copyright, and firing people, all to save their profits, and deliver "stolen" software to market. Apparently this isn't being made vocal enough to reach the "public" media (i.e. not NewsForge or Slashdot or Groklaw), so a few choicely-worded letters to larger newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN) would probably raise some interest in doing a study on it. Anyway, back off of that tangent. I prefer to refer to Plucker as "Free Software", while "free software" has a very different connotation to me. YMMV of course. d. _______________________________________________ plucker-dev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.rubberchicken.org/mailman/listinfo/plucker-dev