To be fair to the old gent, I'd imagine a judge needs to know a little bit more about the term than just that it's what you find in a web browser.
The legal definition would include issues about its originality, uniqueness, authorship, authenticity and so on. Without a detailed grasp of how and where a website exists, and how, where and by whom it can be created, edited, accessed, or removed, the judge wouldn't be able to reach legal conclusions.
If a website exists that says I teach people to make bombs, for example, is that the truth, an allegation, a confession, or a dirty lie? Legally speaking, that depends on the exact definition of "web site".
Proof that free marketeers are smarter than left-liberals?;-)
But seriously, most free (as in libre) software is also free (as in gratis). Any good capitalist would choose a product that (i) performs as desired, (ii) comes with the least restrictions and fine print, and (iii) is cheaper than alternatives. IMHO, the price/performance of a FLOSS platform such as Ubuntu with Firefox and OOo can't be beat. Windows loses on (i), (ii) and, of course, (iii). Office loses on (ii) and (iii), which on balance is probably enough to justify not using it. Don't know about IE. It just sucks too much to even rate it.
Disliking Microsoft's software doesn't require denying the company's right to act however it sees fit. By contrast, using FLOSS software doesn't require buying into a socialist mindset, which may seem common among its practitioners but isn't essential. I can imagine many FLOSS users who wouldn't dream of releasing their own work under the GPL if that meant starving, or who'd only release some after-hours hacking under the GPL.
Besides, the GPL establishes IP in the form of copyright, and explicitly limits the rights others have to it anyway. Just like one would do with copyright work released under a different (eg. commercial) licence. There's nothing inherently anti-market about FLOSS, so nothing that need inherently scare off right-leaning people. Oh, did I mention it's often free?
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To be fair to the old gent, I'd imagine a judge needs to know a little bit more about the term than just that it's what you find in a web browser.
The legal definition would include issues about its originality, uniqueness, authorship, authenticity and so on. Without a detailed grasp of how and where a website exists, and how, where and by whom it can be created, edited, accessed, or removed, the judge wouldn't be able to reach legal conclusions.
If a website exists that says I teach people to make bombs, for example, is that the truth, an allegation, a confession, or a dirty lie? Legally speaking, that depends on the exact definition of "web site".
Proof that free marketeers are smarter than left-liberals? ;-)
But seriously, most free (as in libre) software is also free (as in gratis). Any good capitalist would choose a product that (i) performs as desired, (ii) comes with the least restrictions and fine print, and (iii) is cheaper than alternatives. IMHO, the price/performance of a FLOSS platform such as Ubuntu with Firefox and OOo can't be beat. Windows loses on (i), (ii) and, of course, (iii). Office loses on (ii) and (iii), which on balance is probably enough to justify not using it. Don't know about IE. It just sucks too much to even rate it.
Disliking Microsoft's software doesn't require denying the company's right to act however it sees fit. By contrast, using FLOSS software doesn't require buying into a socialist mindset, which may seem common among its practitioners but isn't essential. I can imagine many FLOSS users who wouldn't dream of releasing their own work under the GPL if that meant starving, or who'd only release some after-hours hacking under the GPL.
Besides, the GPL establishes IP in the form of copyright, and explicitly limits the rights others have to it anyway. Just like one would do with copyright work released under a different (eg. commercial) licence. There's nothing inherently anti-market about FLOSS, so nothing that need inherently scare off right-leaning people. Oh, did I mention it's often free?