|| On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:22:01 +0200 || Stefano Maffulli stef@zoomata.com wrote:
sm> I like this: fair is a good term. Like in "fair trade" or "fair sm> play" it carries a positive meaning, non discrimination is sm> included. IMHO we have a clear winner here. What do you think?
I see more problems with fair than with free, to be honest.
While with free we always have to explain the difference between freedom and price, freedom is comparatively well-defined when looking at other terms, in particular open.
On the other hand: ask someone what is fair and the answers you will get will deviate much, much more. Microsoft certainly considers it fair to pay patent royalties -- so will some other companies. This is a term that can backfire badly on us.
I think you should consider taking reference to "Open Standard" and "Free Standard" and then use simply "Standard" consistently, defining it along the lines that work for Free Software and everyone else.
Because in the end, and "Open Standard" is something of an oxymoron: if only one or a few players are using it, it is merely a proprietary format or interface, but not a standard.
Regards, Georg