the words “free software” are sometimes used in english to just mean software that can be downloaded without paying money, which is confusing. sometimes this software lets people make their own copies for other people, however it may not let people do all the things that they can do with real free software, such as change it or sell it. in this case “free” means “free of charge”. to make the difference more clear, software that does not cost money should be called freeware; it is almost always proprietary software.