3 ms·

> the software is just a tool to enforce a business model. And that's what RMS understood better than many others: His software (and by proxy it's license) is

> the software is just a tool to enforce a business model. And that's what RMS understood better than many others: His software (and by proxy it's license) is just a tool to enforce an ethical business model.

mrtksn 3y ago
What's more ethical about receiving payments immediately for the job done at this very moment than investing your time and money to build something and receive payments for it later?
- groestl 3y ago
  That's a strawman, because neither I nor RMS make arguments about the timing of payments in relation to work done. The restrictions on business models (imposed by software licenses as a tool) is necessary to preserve the Four Freedoms, which, at least in his view are required to use software ethically. RMS predicted, and accurately as we see, that forgoing these essential Freedoms will create a world where software is used (on us) in an unethical way.
  - mrtksn 3y ago
    Fair enough but how are people compensated when you adhere to the ideology? You can’t advocate an ideology without a solution to the problems at hand. Someone needs to write that software, and that someone needs to be fed and sheltered. It’s also not shameful to want more than staying alive.
    - layer8 3y ago
      Sell support, and protection against liability.
      - mrtksn 3y ago
        Cool. You do that, good luck for selling support for your open source TikTok video effects app. The gist is, for different situations different business models can work. If the one you propose works for your software, good for you. The problem starts when you demand that other business models should not exist, so yours can work.
        groestl 3y ago
        > when you demand that other business models should not exist, so yours can work. Aside from the fact that in democracies we regularly oust business models which we believe have dimetral effects on society, this is not what happens here. Free software exists as a choice. And is often chosen freely, because of it's transparency, quality, and continuity, not because of it's price. In fact, when you base your work on a foundation so large that it's infeasible to recreate it, the Four Freedoms actually work in _your_ favor as a business.

mrtksn 3y ago

What's more ethical about receiving payments immediately for the job done at this very moment than investing your time and money to build something and receive payments for it later?

groestl 3y ago
That's a strawman, because neither I nor RMS make arguments about the timing of payments in relation to work done. The restrictions on business models (imposed by software licenses as a tool) is necessary to preserve the Four Freedoms, which, at least in his view are required to use software ethically. RMS predicted, and accurately as we see, that forgoing these essential Freedoms will create a world where software is used (on us) in an unethical way.
- mrtksn 3y ago
  Fair enough but how are people compensated when you adhere to the ideology? You can’t advocate an ideology without a solution to the problems at hand. Someone needs to write that software, and that someone needs to be fed and sheltered. It’s also not shameful to want more than staying alive.
  - layer8 3y ago
    Sell support, and protection against liability.
    - mrtksn 3y ago
      Cool. You do that, good luck for selling support for your open source TikTok video effects app. The gist is, for different situations different business models can work. If the one you propose works for your software, good for you. The problem starts when you demand that other business models should not exist, so yours can work.
      - groestl 3y ago
        > when you demand that other business models should not exist, so yours can work. Aside from the fact that in democracies we regularly oust business models which we believe have dimetral effects on society, this is not what happens here. Free software exists as a choice. And is often chosen freely, because of it's transparency, quality, and continuity, not because of it's price. In fact, when you base your work on a foundation so large that it's infeasible to recreate it, the Four Freedoms actually work in _your_ favor as a business.