Thread:Free speech, free access (1)

The Canadian Oxford defines 'free' as 'not restrained' and 'not restricted'. In the context of this discussion, I take it to mean unrestricted access to materials and software, and unrestrained use of these.

The context of the sign in the photograph is ambiguous: it says that one can express one's mind restrainedly and unrestrictedly in this place, but the permit to do this is given by some authority which presumably can also rescind that permission.

The sign also implies by its very nature that expression of views elsewhere, other than at that location, is restrained and restricted.

I think it needs to be said that freedom of speech can in practice be very hurtful, scandalous, or otherwise damaging: it does not necessarily mean the assertion of humanity, truth, and justice.

The question about protection from appropriation by publishers for their own profit of materials written in the Commons, is a risk contributors have to take. The corollary of that is publishers claiming materials written in the Commons being close enough to published materials to constitute copyright infringement. A determined Monsanto-like publisher possibly could bankrupt the foundations supporting the free licences.