fsf-funding(7)

NAME

fsf-funding - Funding Free Software

DESCRIPTION

Funding Free Software

If you want to have more free software a few years from

now, it makes sense for you to help encourage people to con

tribute funds for its development. The most effective approach

known is to encourage commercial redistributors to donate.

Users of free software systems can boost the pace of de

velopment by encouraging for-a-fee distributors to donate part of

their selling price to free software developers---the Free Soft

ware Foundation, and others.

The way to convince distributors to do this is to demand

it and expect it from them. So when you compare distributors,

judge them partly by how much they give to free software develop

ment. Show distributors they must compete to be the one who

gives the most.

To make this approach work, you must insist on numbers

that you can compare, such as, "We will donate ten dollars to the

Frobnitz project for each disk sold." Don't be satisfied with a

vague promise, such as "A portion of the profits are donated,"

since it doesn't give a basis for comparison.

Even a precise fraction "of the profits from this disk" is

not very meaningful, since creative accounting and unrelated

business decisions can greatly alter what fraction of the sales

price counts as profit. If the price you pay is $50, ten percent

of the profit is probably less than a dollar; it might be a few

cents, or nothing at all.

Some redistributors do development work themselves. This

is useful too; but to keep everyone honest, you need to inquire

how much they do, and what kind. Some kinds of development make

much more long-term difference than others. For example, main

taining a separate version of a program contributes very little;

maintaining the standard version of a program for the whole com

munity contributes much. Easy new ports contribute little, since

someone else would surely do them; difficult ports such as adding

a new CPU to the GNU Compiler Collection contribute more; major

new features or packages contribute the most.

By establishing the idea that supporting further develop

ment is "the proper thing to do" when distributing free software

for a fee, we can assure a steady flow of resources into making

more free software.

SEE ALSO

gpl(7), gfdl(7).

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Verba

tim copying and redistribution of this section is permitted with

out royalty; alteration is not permitted.

gcc-4.1.1 2006-05-24

FSF-FUNDING(7)