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authorRichard M. Stallman <[email protected]>2005-07-07 22:54:34 +0000
committerRichard M. Stallman <[email protected]>2005-07-07 22:54:34 +0000
commit7d1130ad367163ec6a631bc77cbba96374e1d70c (patch)
tree6d6649e442ee8161ad9ea4419523af4c9044e046 /man/gnu.texi
parent8e493cf8739215ca956be1804e29138e9e2ea754 (diff)
Update where to get GNU status; add refs for how to help.
Add footnotes 6 and 7.
Diffstat (limited to 'man/gnu.texi')
-rw-r--r--man/gnu.texi31
1 files changed, 24 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/man/gnu.texi b/man/gnu.texi
index 4185f8f911..d28a4dd035 100644
--- a/man/gnu.texi
+++ b/man/gnu.texi
@@ -39,9 +39,10 @@ Since that time, we have learned about certain common misunderstandings
that different wording could help avoid. Footnotes added in 1993 help
clarify these points.
-For up-to-date information about the available GNU software, please see
-the latest issue of the GNU's Bulletin. The list is much too long to
-include here.
+For up-to-date information about the available GNU software, please
+see @uref{http://www.gnu.org}. For software tasks to work on, see
+@uref{http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/tasklist}. For other ways to
+contribute, see @uref{http://www.gnu.org/help}.
@end quotation
@unnumberedsec What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix!
@@ -380,7 +381,17 @@ practice they would still make considerably more than that.)
other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more
difficult.
-People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights carefully
+People who have studied the issue of intellectual property
+rights@footnote{n the 80s I had not yet realized how confusing it was
+to speak of ``the issue'' of ``intellectual property.'' That term is
+obviously biased; more subtle is the fact that it lumps together
+various disparate laws which raise very different issues. Nowadays I
+urge people to reject the term ``intellectual property'' entirely,
+lest it lead others to suppose that those laws form one coherent
+issue. The way to be clear is to to discuss patents, copyrights, and
+trademarks separately. See
+@uref{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml} for more
+explanation of how this term spreads confusion and bias.} carefully
(such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to intellectual
property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property rights that the
government recognizes were created by specific acts of legislation for
@@ -489,9 +500,15 @@ operating systems onto the new hardware.
The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could also
employ programmers.
-People with new ideas could distribute programs as freeware, asking for
-donations from satisfied users, or selling hand-holding services. I have
-met people who are already working this way successfully.
+People with new ideas could distribute programs as
+freeware@footnote{Subsequently we have learned to distinguish between
+"free software" and "freeware". The term "freeware" means software
+you are free to redistribute, but usually you are not free to study
+and change the source code, so most of it is not free software. See
+@uref{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html} for more
+explanation.}, asking for donations from satisfied users, or selling
+hand-holding services. I have met people who are already working this
+way successfully.
Users with related needs can form users' groups, and pay dues. A group
would contract with programming companies to write programs that the