Re: referencing non-free software

[J.B. Nicholson]

Please stop copying me on your replies, Ilya Shlyakhter. Both Reply-To: and 
Mail-Reply-To: were set and pointed to gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org on my reply 
which was sent only to the same address, the mailing list address. That's a 
pretty clear sign that the poster doesn't want replies going to them.

Ilya Shlyakhter wrote:
> ""A GNU program should not recommend, promote, or grant legitimacy to
> the use of any non-free program."  I don't understand what "grant
> legitimacy" means here.

Even the quote from the URL you supplied comes with other language that 
provide clear context which addresses your own question, as does the text 
indicating how nonfree software may be mentioned (which I quoted earlier in 
my first response to this thread).

You appear to have chosen the wrong definition of 'legitimate'. Consider 
"Conforming to known principles, or established or accepted rules or 
standards; valid." from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/legitimate instead: 
Granting legitimacy to a nonfree program in GNU documentation includes 
stating something in a way that makes that nonfree program appear to be a 
reasonable and proper choice without any language explaining how 
proprietary software is unethical.

The principles of this definition are laid out for you not only in 
https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/References.html#References but 
in many essays on https://gnu.org/philosophy/ and many recordings on 
https://audio-video.gnu.org/.