RMS' view is simple: Work is valuable, people should be paid, but putting proprietary software into the world is harmful, so you should be shamed for that, not

RMS' view is simple: Work is valuable, people should be paid, but putting proprietary software into the world is harmful, so you should be shamed for that, not paid for it. Thus, he will readily acknowledge that making a living writing freely-licensed software may be difficult, but since it is the only ethical way to write software, we just have to figure out the best ways we can to do it. An extreme absurd version of the logic (NOT to say the moral implications are the same, just to understand the logic!!) is this: it may be easier to get rich owning slaves, but you should not own slaves. I don't care how hard life is for you or how hard you have to work or how impossible your business would be without slaves. No slavery. http://mimiandeunice.com/2010/08/25/for-the-children/ http://mimiandeunice.com/2010/08/25/for-the-children/ The fact that an unethical business model can be successful doesn't matter. We should reject it and figure out whatever else we have to do to get by.