On Wed, 2 May 2001, Raju Mathur wrote:
Stefan> GPL says that it is allowed to take a fee for distributing Stefan> free software, however this is only a means to balance Stefan> some expenditure -- not the goal!
I don't see this either mentioned or implied anywhere in the GPL or the GNU manifesto.
As someone who makes a living at servicing free software, I have to agree in general.
On the other hand, I am unconfortable having a movement that indicates making money is part of it's goal because of the variety of ways that making money for oneself has been abused as an excuse over the years for exploiting others.
There is no legitimate reason one can't make money at something without exploiting others, it is just not the image that comes to peoples minds at this point in time and we need to be aware of this.
resources which diminish by sharing: if I have 10 Rupees and give you 5, the total amount of wealth in the world does not increase. Similarly, if I have 10 hours of consulting time available in a given period of time and give you 5, the total amount of consulting time available in the world does not increase either.
This is where the advantages of Intellectual Freedoms vs Intellectual Property can be given as example as I don't agree with the comparison as it doesn't take the inefficiencies and exploitation of Intellectual Property into consideration.
In an Intellectual Property world if you spent 10 hours solving a problem, and I spent 5 : your time is wasted if I filled for a patent on my solution first, or had a copyright on the information first.
In an Intellectual Freedom world it is only a matter of communications as to whether or not we end up 15 hours ahead of the game by the two of us working together on the problem. This freedom is very much a matter of efficiency as it enables us to advance further by not wasting so much time re-inventing things.
It is not whether or not the world will 'gain' more than 15 hours total, but how much the world will loose due to inefficiencies in the system.
While I may also dream of a world where Free Software results in free everything, I'm willing to take things one step at a time and make money out of Free Software while still being a staunch advocate of Freedom from IP.
I'd like to not have to worry about making a living as well, but see no moral issues with making money from the SERVICE of working on Free Software, just have huge moral problems with arbitrarily making things scarce and inefficient.
Stefan> As RMS said: We should more talk about freedom. And not of Stefan> making money, I add.
If you solve the corruption/inefficiencies/etc problems because of the lack of freedom first, and the issues relating to fair commerce can solve themselves. I just don't think people should be taking things so literally to assume that this means that making money on Free Software is somehow an incompatable thing - the only thing it suggests is incompatable is to unfairly extract wealth by exploiting others via taking away their freedom.
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