🚀 go-pugleaf

johnston@me.udel.edu (Bill Johnston) writes:

>Charging a higher price for businesses strikes me as unenforceable
>and possibly a bit naive as a marketing strategy;  after all, 
Marketing Strategy???

>I expect that the reason for having a price differential is  
>to offer businesses a convenient way to donate to FSF that: 

>1) brings in more money than an individual's contribution  
>2) is still easier to explain to the bean-counters than 
>   conventional charitable contributions.

>Past solicitations by FSF for tape sales (which were mainly
>aimed at businesses and organizations) have clearly suggested 
>that buying tapes is a good way to support FSF, and the recent 
>CD-ROM offer was not much different in that respect.  The CD-ROM
>offers for the first time a way of distributing the product that 
>is convenient and accessible for individual users.

>For those who see something sinister in offering essentially the 
>same product with different pricing for different target customers:
>all that one need do to differentiate the "individual" and "business" 
>versions of the CD-ROM would be to change the package label.  With a 
>$300 price difference, FSF might be clever enough to include some 
>added value in the form of documentation targeted at business needs;
>otherwise, they may risk alienating a business customer who pays $400 
>and later feels cheated.  If this is the case, FSF can and will
>be undersold by someone else with a better grasp of marketing and 
>customer service.  I think it's more likely that business customers
>will understand that the CD-ROM is more useful than a coffee mug or
>a tote bag, and justify the price differential as a donation.
Customer Service?

Hmmm... How very bizarre...

I have been a fan of RMS and FSF ever since I read "Hackers" and
learned how to use GNU Emacs on the Harris HCX-9...

I remember reading all the COPYING notices, etc.

Regardless of the *Letter* of the copyright, it seems to me the intent
is clear enough: Don't sell this stuff, and don't keep it from anyone.

I seem to remember a lamentation by RMS at some point about having to
loosen up on the licensing restrictions on something in order to let
something else go forward... Whatever that was, that is the only
change I have heard for that intent.

As to the CD-ROM, the price differential has nothing to do with the
cost of the software: FREE. Anyone that can mail to the internet and
recieve mail back can get it for free.

And you are free to Modify it, make it better, but please, if you do,
send us a copy, *SO THAT WE CAN RELEASE IT COHERENTLY*. Don't put it
out as ours, let us do that, so that someone up here can double check
it, and release it to all the sites, etc.

That is true of businesses and individuals alike.

The differential (correct me if I am wrong) applies only to the cost
of an aliminum and plastic disk. $100 for individuals, $400 for
businesses, who are likely to have several computers to put it on...

This particular piece of plastic happens to contain information in
machine readable form, what a bonus!

However that information has some legal restrictions, gosh!
Doesn't seem to be preventing anyone from using the software,
including the Regents of the University of California...

It only legally prevents people from profitting from it.

It boils down to this: The Software is "Free" like humans are "free";
No one may bind it and lock it down, hidden behind closed doors and
encrypted systems, held back by corporate greed.

It is in a kind, loving environment, where it may be nurtured by
dozens of Aunts and Uncles, but come beddy-bye time, please send it
home to rest, so that it has room to mature, and learn, in a house
provide by a loving Father, one Richard M. Stallman.

It seems to me, that instead of arguing whether it is moral to charge
multi-peopled entities more than single people, we should be
discussing AT&T's lawsuit against BSDI and UCB, and how that might
affect the world.
--
When life seems to be getting you down...
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======David Charles Todd, tHE mAN wITH tHREE fIRST nAMES======
-------------------- David misses eBeth ----------------------
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			   ...ask it why it is torturing geese


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