Funding.html 6.4 KB

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  68. <a name="Funding-Free-Software"></a>
  69. <h2 class="unnumbered">Funding Free Software</h2>
  70. <p>If you want to have more free software a few years from now, it makes
  71. sense for you to help encourage people to contribute funds for its
  72. development. The most effective approach known is to encourage
  73. commercial redistributors to donate.
  74. </p>
  75. <p>Users of free software systems can boost the pace of development by
  76. encouraging for-a-fee distributors to donate part of their selling price
  77. to free software developers&mdash;the Free Software Foundation, and others.
  78. </p>
  79. <p>The way to convince distributors to do this is to demand it and expect
  80. it from them. So when you compare distributors, judge them partly by
  81. how much they give to free software development. Show distributors
  82. they must compete to be the one who gives the most.
  83. </p>
  84. <p>To make this approach work, you must insist on numbers that you can
  85. compare, such as, &ldquo;We will donate ten dollars to the Frobnitz project
  86. for each disk sold.&rdquo; Don&rsquo;t be satisfied with a vague promise, such as
  87. &ldquo;A portion of the profits are donated,&rdquo; since it doesn&rsquo;t give a basis
  88. for comparison.
  89. </p>
  90. <p>Even a precise fraction &ldquo;of the profits from this disk&rdquo; is not very
  91. meaningful, since creative accounting and unrelated business decisions
  92. can greatly alter what fraction of the sales price counts as profit.
  93. If the price you pay is $50, ten percent of the profit is probably
  94. less than a dollar; it might be a few cents, or nothing at all.
  95. </p>
  96. <p>Some redistributors do development work themselves. This is useful too;
  97. but to keep everyone honest, you need to inquire how much they do, and
  98. what kind. Some kinds of development make much more long-term
  99. difference than others. For example, maintaining a separate version of
  100. a program contributes very little; maintaining the standard version of a
  101. program for the whole community contributes much. Easy new ports
  102. contribute little, since someone else would surely do them; difficult
  103. ports such as adding a new CPU to the GNU Compiler Collection contribute more;
  104. major new features or packages contribute the most.
  105. </p>
  106. <p>By establishing the idea that supporting further development is &ldquo;the
  107. proper thing to do&rdquo; when distributing free software for a fee, we can
  108. assure a steady flow of resources into making more free software.
  109. </p>
  110. <div class="display">
  111. <pre class="display">Copyright &copy; 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  112. Verbatim copying and redistribution of this section is permitted
  113. without royalty; alteration is not permitted.
  114. </pre></div>
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