Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2010-07-16
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2010-07-16

by shaenon on July 16, 2010 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Brave Little Toasters
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Discussion (5) ¬

  1. Kd7sov
    November 27, 2012, 8:55 pm | # | Reply

    Dear Sweetheart,
    Information wants to be free.
    Love, a life-long library patron.

    • JET73L
      February 7, 2015, 8:11 pm | # | Reply

      It bothers me that so many people use the phrase as “information wants to be gratis”, not “information wants to be libre”. The latter is obvious to me, but I’ve neven been given a proper explanation for the former, and I don’t actually know which meaning came first (given conflicting references).

      • Ardacil
        February 24, 2015, 12:42 am | # | Reply

        It depends on if you’re referring to cost or restriction. If you’re saying that information should cost nothing, use “gratis”. If you’re saying that information should be offered without any restrictions, use “libre”.

        A good way of remembering the difference is by thinking of the words “gratuity” and “liberty”. The one offers money for free, and the other offers lack of restriction for free.

        Libraries, therefore, offer information gratis, but not libre, as they don’t charge money unless you break their restrictions.

      • Fal Leithani
        September 3, 2015, 6:34 pm | # | Reply

        The original quote was referring to the gratis form.

        “On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.”

        – Stewart Brand, “Whole Earth Review”, May 1985, p. 49.

        Most people take the one phrase out of context, thus completely missing the point.

        • JET73L
          July 16, 2018, 4:06 am | # | Reply

          That’s what I was asking, Leithani! Thanks!

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