Re: [libreplanet-discuss] help with FSF incompatible but community oriented licence(s)

[Ted Smith]

On Wed, 2012-10-03 at 16:29 -0400, Patrick wrote:
> On 12-10-03 01:51 PM, Jason Self wrote:
> > Patrick said:
> >
> >> Parents of autistic kids are already under
> >> enormous stress and most won't end up knowing there was a free as in
> >> beer alternative. parisites will swoop in an screw over the parents by
> >> sellign them the software.
> > It's good that you're concerned that people might be taken advantage of but 
> > I
> > think your concerns are unfounded. There is remarkable self-correcting 
> > power in
> > the world. If someone is charging too much for a copy of the software 
> > someone
> > else will come in and undercut them by offering the same software at a lower
> > cost (maybe even free) and if the price is a big problem word *will* get 
> > around
> > so it isn't necessary for the license to mandate that the software be
> > distributed at no cost.
> >
> > This is also discussed in Selling Free Software [1], specifically the "Will 
> > a
> > higher distribution price hurt some users?" section.
> >
> > As an example, internet access isn't available everywhere and so the 
> > requirement
> > to distribute it at no cost means that I couldn't give copies to people for,
> > say, $5 each on CD to cover my costs of buying and mailing CDs because 
> > that's
> > not without cost.
> >
> > Not only is distributing for a fee not a problem that you need to worry 
> > about
> > for the reasons I stated but mandating that there be no cost could also be a
> > hindrance to others that want to help.
> >
> > [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html
> Hi Jason
> 
> With all due respect look that this:
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=gimp+software&_sacat=0&_odkw=gimp&_osacat=0&_from=R40
> 
> or this:
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=openoffice+software&_sacat=0&_odkw=inkscape+software&_osacat=0&_from=R40
> 
> or any of dozens of other projects.
> 
> Ask the people who wrote them, if they are happy about this. GPL allows 
> for the betrayal of charitable efforts.

These auctions are all for CDs that people have made. The first one in
particular includes compiled versions for all major platforms, and
portable versions that can be used on different computers.

The act of taking free software and burning it to a CD is what's called
"creating value" in economics.

Personally, as a free software developer, I would be flattered if people
thought highly enough of my software to sell it on Ebay. The people
buying it could also download it from my website (how do you think
they've found that auction if they don't know what GIMP is?), but if
they choose to pay someone to burn it on a CD and ship it to them,
they're free to do so. 

This is not a "betrayal of charitable efforts." This is the free
software culture working as intended. 
-- 
Sent from Ubuntu

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