# HG changeset patch # User Richard M. Stallman # Date 1120776874 0 # Node ID 1782f42ba3e28f689635b6ae673b8f25f14552d2 # Parent ca7f4737d1efd67549d1308fcaaba2c1d5698d01 Update where to get GNU status; add refs for how to help. Add footnotes 6 and 7. diff -r ca7f4737d1ef -r 1782f42ba3e2 man/gnu.texi --- a/man/gnu.texi Thu Jul 07 22:52:58 2005 +0000 +++ b/man/gnu.texi Thu Jul 07 22:54:34 2005 +0000 @@ -39,9 +39,10 @@ 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 @@ 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 @@ 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