changeset 64144:1782f42ba3e2

Update where to get GNU status; add refs for how to help. Add footnotes 6 and 7.
author Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
date Thu, 07 Jul 2005 22:54:34 +0000
parents ca7f4737d1ef
children a8e381cff97f
files man/gnu.texi
diffstat 1 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) [+]
line wrap: on
line diff
--- 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