[ubuntu-uk] Manchester Free Software : RMS Video

Lucy lucybridges at gmail.com
Sun May 11 07:50:33 BST 2008


On 11/05/2008, Thomas Ibbotson <thomas.ibbotson at gmail.com> wrote:
> Tim Dobson wrote:
>  > ==========
>  > RMS Video:
>  > ==========
>  >
>  > The video of last week's Manchester Free Software, (in collaboration
>  > with the BCS and IET) talk by Richard Stallman has been released, thanks
>  > to Andrew John Hughes.
> Thanks for this. I've finally had the time to watch it, I found it very
>  entertaining and interesting. I've never heard a talk by Richard
>  Stallman, he clearly does that sort of thing a lot and has some very
>  well laid out and convincing arguments.
>
>  I am interested in particular in the relationship between software
>  freedom, copyright and patenting. There seems to be a problem here in a
>  clash between the rights of the users and the rights of the
>  creators/inventors. I agree that it is right for users to be in control
>  of the software that they own, and that a part of that is the
>  requirement that they should be able to obtain the help of others in
>  getting that control by providing copies of the code both modified and
>  not to allow others to help them modify it to do what they want (if it
>  doesn't already!).
>
>  However, I am also in favour of credit being given where it's due, and
>  allowing creators/inventors to profit from their work. If someone has
>  put in the time and effort to create or improve something that other
>  people would like to use, surely they should be allowed to profit from it.

I'm going to ignore patents in this argument, because applying them to
software is just stupid (see link below). However, applying a
different copyright, such as the GPL does not stop credit from being
given to the author - in fact it's usually up there at the top of
every file. I would say I know the authors of more free software than
proprietary software.

How to make money from free software is an interesting and difficult
topic but you only have to have a quick look around the Internet to
see that an increasing number of companies are managing. As a software
developer myself I expect to be paid for my work (excluding volunteer
work), the license applied to the end product does not change that, it
just means that in the case of free software that the customer gets a
fair deal. Personally, I work for the tax payer (like a large number
of people in this country), so I think it's particularly important
that the work is released under a free license. Dont' forget that new
software is always going to be needed and companies will still pay to
have it written. In addition, about 80% of all software is solely
developed and used inhouse anyway, so the license is not really
relevant in those cases.

I believe it's possible to make money from free software, by being
paid to write a new/alter an existing program, from support and
merchandise, and probably from many other ways that I've not
considered. But, ultimately, like Stallman said in his talk, there's
no fundamental right to having a job as a programmer; if it comes to
it there's always other jobs you can do and you can still program in
your spare time. The important bit is releasing the program as free
software, so that other people can benefit.

I would recommend looking at the articles and essays on this site for
more and better information:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

I hope that makes sense, it's very early at the moment!



More information about the ubuntu-uk mailing list