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Since the advent of the free software movement, these terms have entered frequent use for categorising computer programs according to the licenses and legal fetters that cover them. The expression Free as in Freedom is also the title of a 2002 biography of Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation.

In most other languages, there are two different words for these two meanings. For example, gratuit (no cost) and libre (free of restrictions) in French, and gratis and liber in Latin.

To some people (outside the particular context of software), "free beer" can imply free riding, or freeloading - taking advantage of something that is not paid for.

See also: Gratis, Libre