The expression free as in beer refers to things which are available at no monetary cost (like free beer at a party). It can be contrasted with the expressions free as in speech or free as in freedom, which refer to something which is free of restrictions, as in the freedom of speech. Statue of Liberty - Liberty is one meaning of freedom. For proper-noun uses of Freedom, see Freedom (disambiguation). ... Freedom of speech is the liberty to freely say what one pleases, as well as the related liberty to hear what others have stated. ...

Since the advent of the free software movement, these terms have entered frequent use for categorising computer programs according to the licenses and legal fetters that cover them. The expression Free as in Freedom is also the title of a 2002 biography of Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation. The Free Software Movement began in 1983 when Richard Stallman announced the GNU project. ... A computer program (often simply called a program) is an example of computer software that prescribes the actions (computations) that are to be carried out by a computer. ... A license or licence is a document or agreement giving permission to do something. ... In law, particularly in common law jurisdictions, intellectual property or IP refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to the expressed form of an idea or of other intangible subject matter. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sir Thomas Malory wrote the most famous fictional biography of the Middle Ages with Le Morte dArthur about the life of King Arthur. ... Richard Matthew Stallman, a. ... Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organisation founded in 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project. ...

In most other languages, there are two different words for these two meanings. For example, gratis (no cost) and libre (free of restrictions) in certain Romance languages. Categories: Stub ... Libre is a word in various Romance languages, e. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages or New Latin Languages, are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Latin dialects spoken by the common people in what is known as Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish Europa latina, French Europe latine) as Vulgar Latin later evolved...

To some people (outside the particular context of software), "free beer" can imply free riding, or freeloading — taking advantage of something that is not paid for. In the analyses of economics and political science, free riders are actors who take more than their fair share of the benefits or do not shoulder their fair share of the costs of their use of a resource, involvement in a project, etc. ... In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation usually does not include simple theft, since the latter is not a persistent economic or social relationship, as when a pimp exploits his prostitute. ...

See also

• Gratis
• Libre
• Stallman's discussion of FreeAsInBeer (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FreeAsInBeer)