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Subject: Re: Funding GPL projects or funding the GPL?
From: Federico Ferreres <fferreres@ojf.com>
To: Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
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I have already donated $30 last year (but to the EFF as I think freedom
is also important). But how many individuals donate though? I'd say 99%
of the people just free ride. That means resources are very scarce and
not enough OSS is produced. 

But something is wrong with this. If I donate then it's no longer free.
And only if you never donate then you can call it free. Efectively, that
means that to get to a certain level of funding donators have pay 99
times the amount that would otherwise be needed if everyone contributed.

This reminds me of my countrie's idea of "social justice": the rich go
to the tax funded, free universities while the poor grow corn and work
18 hours, 7 days a week and also pay the taxes (40%). Of course these
poor can't pay for housing and food while studing. But every time
someone suggests charging a small fee to univ. students (offering state
loans for the ones that can't really pay that would cover food, housing
and the fee) to partially fund those universities, and in order to lower
the consumer tax (poors tax), they are dismised because "free access to
the university is there so that the poor can study". 

OSS is not much different either, but it's very difficult for most
people to understand it for some unknown reason.

Federico

On Tue, 2002-07-30 at 19:20, Pavel Machek wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> > The choice is all yours ... you own this market, you control it and you
> > deserve to manage things as you see fit. My $20 will be waiting for a
> > way to contribute in an inteligent manner which also forces everyone
> > else to do the same.
> 
> If you own to donate $20, give it to FSF. Or buy RedHat box. Or buy
> SuSE box. Or give them to me. If you want to force everyone else to
> give $20, you are out of luck.
> 								Pavel
> -- 
> Worst form of spam? Adding advertisment signatures ala sourceforge.net.
> What goes next? Inserting advertisment *into* email?
> 


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