In an effort to combat the general confusion surrounding the terms
Free Software and Open Source, I have attempted to write some sound
bites to define, contrast, and comment on the terms.  I believe I've got
the definitions for each term down to two sentences.  The entire
document is currently 291 words (sans title and lawyerosity.)  Success
in this endeavor could go a long way toward combating the general
mis-information being spread.  If nothing else it would provide a
simple way to point out errors to the mainstream press.

There is no catch-phrase for "BSD style license", but would like my
text to satisfy those who advocate this type of license as well.  I
believe the best way to serve everyone's interests is to provide clear
and accurate explanations of the various "open" licenses.

(The increasing popularity of Free Software and Open Source software,
has resulted in increased public interest and a corresponding tendency
in proprietary software vendors to either align themselves with or
co-opt these movements.  The resultant surge in press coverage and
overall conversation seems to have increased rather than decreased the
general confusion surrounding the meaning of the terms Free Software
and Open Source, or at least has brought the scope of the
misunderstandings to my attention.)

I'm looking for corrections, omissions, blessings, curses or any other
comments you may have.

I'd be indebted to anyone who knows their grammar and punctuation for
corrections and comments.  I covet edits which further reduce the size
of the text.

Regards the Open Source sound bite:

The "by anyone for any purpose" would seem to express the spirit of
the "no discrimination" clauses of the definition, sections 5, 6, 8,
and 9.  Section 1 is covered by "for sale or for fee, without payment
of royalties."  Sections 2 and 3 are covered by "read and improved
... by anyone who has a working copy".  This only leaves sections 4
and 7, which to my mind simply describe technical details.

Thanks for your help.

Karl <kop@meme.com>

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		     Software License Sound Bites
			     Version 0.1
		     Karl O. Pinc <kop@meme.com>
		  President, The Meme Factory, Inc.
			 http://www.meme.com

       Copyright (c) 2002, Karl O. Pinc
       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
       document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
       Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software
       Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover
       Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license is
       available at "http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt".

Free Software can be used, improved, and given away or sold, by anyone
who has legally obtained a working copy of the software.  Just two,
optional, restrictions on the use of the software are permitted:
should the software be defective, the authors cannot be sued; in turn,
the rights of use, alteration, and re-distribution must continue to be
passed onward to those who have legally obtained subsequent
improvements.  Free Software subject to the second of these optional
restrictions is said to be copylefted.  The GNU GPL is the original
Free Software copyleft license.

Open Source software is that which can be used, read, and improved,
for any purpose, by anyone who has legally obtained a working copy of
the software; improvements may be re-distributed, either for sale or
for free, without payment of royalties.  Other restrictions compatible
with these criteria may exist.

As the neither of the two restrictions allowed by the Free Software
definition violate the Open Source criteria, Free Software is one
variety of Open Source software.  As the Open Source definition allows
other restrictions to be placed on the use, distribution, and
modification of the software, all Open Source software is not Free
Software.

Users of Free Software who understand the Free Software definition and
know whether their software is copylefted can be confident they know
their rights and obligations.  Users of Open Source software who
understand the Open source definition can be confident they have
certain rights.  Users of any kind of non-Free Software must examine
the terms of their software license(s) to discover what obligations
they have to the copyright holder and what restrictions the license
may place on their activities.

For more information see The Free Software Definition
(http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html) and The Open Source
Definition (http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php).