Free Beer

Last updated
Free Beer
Freebeer english3.2.svg
TypeBeer
Manufacturer Independent
Country of origin Denmark
Introduced2004
Related products OpenCola (drink)
Website https://freebeer.org

Free Beer is a beer brand collaboration between students of IT University of Copenhagen [1] and the artist collective Superflex initiated in 2004. The recipe of the beer is published under a Creative Commons license, granting others the right to freely use and distribute it. [2] [3]

Contents

Free Beer "St Austell" (version 3.2) (2007). "Free Beer".jpg
Free Beer "St Austell" (version 3.2) (2007).
Superflex Workshop at the "Free Beer Factory" event at the Taipei Biennial 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan Superflex, Free Beer Factory, 2008 ongoing, taiwan taipeh 3.jpg
Superflex Workshop at the "Free Beer Factory" event at the Taipei Biennial 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan
Free Beer on sale at the iSummit 2008 Sapporo in Japan sold for 500yen. Isummit 2008, Japan, free beer crop.png
Free Beer on sale at the iSummit 2008 Sapporo in Japan sold for 500yen.
Anti-copyright display with a "Free Beer version 3.2 St. Austell" mascot and a sign reading "Copyright is preventing access to knowledge" (2007) FREE BEER version 3.2, St Austell 2.jpg
Anti-copyright display with a "Free Beer version 3.2 St. Austell" mascot and a sign reading "Copyright is preventing access to knowledge" (2007)

History

Vores Øl

In December 2004, a group of students from the IT University of Copenhagen, in partnership with Superflex, brewed a batch of beer in the university's cafeteria. The group named the beer "Vores Øl" (Danish for "Our Beer"), inspired by a 1994 Carlsberg beer advertisement slogan. They launched a website to promote the project and released the beer’s recipe and label design under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.5 license. Since cooking recipes are not protected by copyright, the share-alike licensing approach used is legally questionable and had not been tested in any court of law.

Free Beer

The developers of the beer stated that they wanted to raise awareness of the "dogmatic notions of copyright and intellectual property that are dominating our culture." [6] The group admitted to having limited experience with beer production. After the first batch of the open-source beer was brewed, Superflex continued developing the concept under the name "Free Beer" and designed a new label. Inspired by colourful aesthetics of the 1960s, it was meant to further underline the concept of freedom. [7] The name Free Beer is a play on Richard Stallman's quote about free software being “'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer.'” [8]

Recipe

The first Vores Øl recipe drew criticism from the homebrewing community for its lack of necessary instructions. [9] Community members were concerned the recipe had not outlined how much water to use in the mash, what type of yeast to use, the style of beer being produced (other than being dark and heavy), whether or not to add any hops, what the fermentation temperature should be, or how the beer was supposed to taste. [10]

Due to the free availability of the recipe, the recipe has been changed several times. Major Free Beer recipe iterations (v3.0 and v4.0) were developed in collaboration with a Danish brewery, Skands, in Brøndby. [11] [12] The amount of sugar has been decreased by 90% to improve the quality of the beer.

VersionCodenameDateBrewery/Comments
"FREE BEER – Performa Version"October 31, 2023Brewed by Evil Twin Brewing for the Performa Biennial in New York. [13]
"FREE BEER / FREE UKRAINE"August 9, 2022 Mikkeller and Warpigs in Copenhagen and Berryland Cidery in Ukraine [14]
8.0May 31, 2022Brewery 304 in Seoul [15]
6.0"The Atlantic Brew"October 30, 2017Summerskills brewery in Devonport, Plymouth [16]
4.1August 25, 2010Brewery in Huntington Beach, California
4.1"Artspace"October 2008 Steam Brewing Company in Newton, New Zealand [17]
4.0"SKANDS"September 2008Skands Microbrewery in Brøndby, Denmark
3.5"Hops & Barley"March 2008By the Hops & Barley microbrewery Berlin, Germany [18]
3.4"Germania"November 2007Arnaldo Ribero, Germania brewery in São Paulo, Brazil [19]
3.3"Linghzi"November 2007Everything Mushroom, Knoxville, Tennessee
3.2"St Austell"July 2007 St Austell Brewery in Cornwall, England
3.0"Skands"June 2006Skands Microbrewery in Brøndby, Denmark [20] (and more) [21]
2.1"Apollo"August 2006Apollo Microbrewery in Copenhagen [22]
1.5"Samvirke"Suited for homebrewing
1.1FREE BEERMay 20, 2005First time served under the name Free Beer at the Volksbühne [23] [24]
1.0"Vores Øl"December 2004 [25] Brewed by students at the IT university in Copenhagen with Superflex

Derivatives

Known derivatives using the free license include:

Reception

Free Beer has received coverage in international print and digital media. [30] [31] [32] The brand has been discussed in books on copyright. [33] The project been written about by figures in the free software movement, including Cory Doctorow [34] and Lawrence Lessig. [5] [2] In 2005, Superflex interviewed Richard Stallman on the project. [35]

Free Beer has been distributed at technology conferences, including Summit 2008 and RMLL 2011, 2012, and 2014. [28] [36] The FSCONS 2008 resulted in an ebook that featured Free Beer. [37] [38] Free Beer was also exhibited in art exhibitions and museums, such as the Art Basel Miami Beach 2006, the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands in 2007, and the Taipei Biennial 2010. [39] [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets these requirements, The Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software, is termed free software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU</span> Free software collection

GNU is an extensive collection of free software, which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popularly known as Linux. Most of GNU is licensed under the GNU Project's own General Public License (GPL).

Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright licenses, known as Creative Commons licenses, free of charge to the public. These licenses allow authors of creative works to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Content owners still maintain their copyright, but Creative Commons licenses give standard releases that replace the individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, that are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU Project</span> Free software project

The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by collaboratively developing and publishing software that gives everyone the rights to freely run the software, copy and distribute it, study it, and modify it. GNU software grants these rights in its license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenCola (drink)</span> Brand of open cola where instructions for making are freely available

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The Free Software Foundation (FSF) grants two annual awards. Since 1998, FSF has granted the award for Advancement of Free Software and since 2005, also the Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free and open-source software</span> Software whose source code is available and which is permissively licensed

Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that is available under a license that grants the right to use, modify, and distribute the software, modified or not, to everyone free of charge. The public availability of the source code is, therefore, a necessary but not sufficient condition. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term for free software and open-source software. FOSS is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright or licensing and the source code is hidden from the users.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Stallman</span> American free software activist and GNU Project founder (born 1953)

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References

  1. ↑ "Danish students launch open source and shareware beer". COPENHAGEN CAPACITY. 2004-12-30. Archived from the original on 2005-01-04. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  2. 1 2 Lessig, Lawrence (2006-09-01). "Free, as in Beer". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  3. ↑ Drobnick, Jim (Winter 2018). "Bottles of Art, Works of Alcohol". Gastronomica. 18 (4): 54–70. doi:10.1525/gfc.2018.18.4.54. ISSN   1529-3262. JSTOR   26586442 – via JSTOR.
  4. 1 2 "Program". TAIPEI BIENNIAL. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  5. 1 2 Lessig, Lawrence (2008-08-04). "How much RMS has won". Lessig. Archived from the original on 2015-07-10. Retrieved 2015-07-08.
  6. ↑ Harewood, Adrian (2005-07-21). "Danish offer a recipe for open source beer". CBC Radio. Archived from the original on 2008-04-23. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
  7. ↑ Koch, Rasmus (2007-01-01). "Free Beer". Rasmus Koch Studio. Retrieved 2015-08-24. FREE BEER refers to information freedom, not economic freedom. [...] Designing a visual program for an idea [...] builds on a vivid and colorful reference to 60's liberation."
  8. ↑ "What is Free Software?". GNU Project. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  9. ↑ "Free Beer That's Free as in Speech". Slashdot. 2005-07-25. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  10. ↑ "Free Beer That's Free as in Speech". Slashdot. 2005-07-25. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  11. ↑ "Photos of FREE BEER 3.0 at final production stage". FREE BEER. 2006-06-09. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  12. ↑ "FREE BEER VERSION 4.0". FREE BEER. 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  13. ↑ "FREE BEER – Performa Version". FREE BEER. 2022-08-09. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  14. ↑ "FREE BEER / FREE UKRAINE". FREE BEER. 2022-08-09. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  15. ↑ "Free Beer version 8.0 – Brewery 304". FREE BEER. 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  16. ↑ "FREE BEER 6.0 – The Atlantic Brew". FREE BEER. 2017-10-30. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  17. ↑ "SUPERFLEX". ARTSPACE. Archived from the original on 2019-02-15.
  18. ↑ "FREE BEER macht sich schön für die re:publica". antischokke (in German). 2008-03-09. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  19. ↑ "Free Beer". BLOG BGT BIERGARTEN (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2009-01-16. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  20. ↑ "Bryggeriet Skands". Bryggeriet Skands.
  21. ↑ "2006 Status version 3.0". FREE BEER. 2007-01-10. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  22. ↑ "Free Beer version 2.1 on the Apollo brewery in Copenhagen". FREE BEER. 2006-08-01. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  23. ↑ Babcock, Jay (2005-05-22). "SUPERFLEX". Arthur Magazine. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  24. ↑ Balzer, Jens (2005-05-23). "Wer will schon eine würdelose alte Frau?". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  25. ↑ "English info". Vores ØL. Archived from the original on 2004-12-23.
  26. ↑ ""Free Beer" et "Le baiser de la princesse", les bières open source !". Free Tools (in French). 2008-05-03. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
  27. ↑ "Le Baiser de la Princesse". Le Baiser de la Princesse. Archived from the original on 2008-05-17.
  28. 1 2 "RMLL has free beer (as in speech)". MCLD blog. 2011-07-15. Archived from the original on 2011-10-16. Retrieved 2011-07-15.
  29. ↑ "Bière Libre – Free Beer". Guide Bière (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  30. ↑ Boyd, Clark (2005-07-28). "'Free' Danish beer makes a splash". BBC NEWS. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  31. ↑ Cohn, David (2005-07-18). "Free Beer for Geeks". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  32. ↑ "Kopenhagen: Studenten brauen Open-Source-Bier". Der Spiegel (in German). 2005-07-20. ISSN   2195-1349 . Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  33. ↑ Fiona, Macmillan, ed. (2007). New Directions in Copyright Law, Volume 6. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 69–70. ISBN   9781782543718 . Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  34. ↑ Doctorow, Cory (2006-06-09). "Danish hackers launch Free Beer 3.0, with guarana". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  35. ↑ Moltke, Henrik (2005). "Richard Stallman on FREE BEER". SUPERFLEX. Archived from the original on 2011-10-13.
  36. ↑ "Bière Libre". 13es Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre (RMLL), Genève 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26.
  37. ↑ "FREE BEER book out now". FREE BEER. 2009-11-26. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  38. ↑ "FREE BEER". FSCONS. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  39. ↑ "Cultural and Creative projects". Taipei Fine Arts Museum. 2010-01-13. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
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