🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Nov5.210739.19151@iitmax.iit.edu> draughn@iitmax.iit.edu (Mark Draughn) writes:

|  There is a chance that other people would be able to use something
|  like this.  When I'm done, I'll consider making it publicly available.

|  I could just put it in the public domain, but I can forsee the
|  possibility of some unpleasentness.  What if some software company out
|  there uses my code in a program that they sell commercially?

|  Boy, will I feel stupid.  I'm in the position of a musician who writes
|  a Christmas song and releases it to the public domain, so that
|  carolers and school choirs can use it, only to discover that someone
|  has recorded a single and is making big money from it.  Here's someone
|  making money off of work, and I have no way to stop it.
---
I still have a lot of philosophical trouble with people who say "Look,
I'm giving this away, so anyone can use it" and then act like they've
been damaged if somebody else chooses to take that gift and use it to
make money.  This seems to violate their sense of fairness, but I can't
see it.  If you choose to provide a social good by allowing anyone to
use the fruits of your intelligence and effort, that's great; if you
choose to try instead to make money with those fruits, that's fine, too.

But apparently a lot of the GNU people have this sort of self-conscious
idea that they will look stupid if someone else makes money off their
work.  I don't know whether this is lack of self-confidence (believing
others can turn their work into something much, much better than they
could hope to compete with) or just lack of the courage of their
convictions, but it does wear thin after a while.

If you would wear a halo, be a saint.  Say, "It's my gift to the greater
social good, use it as you will."  I promise that *I*, at least, will
never laugh at you for having chosen to give something of value.

If you're not brave enough to give things away, don't claim the glory.
There's nothing wrong with having a social, political, or
profit-oriented agenda, as long as you don't claim to be agenda-free.
I may not agree with RMS's views, but I respect them as seriously
thought about and openly avowed.  I have rather less respect for those
of his followers who use the "Think how stupid you'd feel if someone
else profited from the work you gave away." argument to scare insecure
developers into playing in line with the Foundation's political agenda.

scott
--
scott preece
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