[ubuntu-uk] Manchester Free Software : RMS Video

[Matthew Wild]

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 2:56 AM, Thomas Ibbotson
<thomas.ibbotson at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>

Credit is always given, the original creators hold the copyright. They
are also not stopped from profiting from it...

> Now I know free software does not mean "free as in beer", so it is
> perfectly possible for creators/inventors to profit from their work by
> charging a fee for it initially. However once it has been bought by one
> person, who is then free to distribute it and modify it, there is no
> guarantee that the original creator can obtain anything further.
>

...how they profit is another matter.

> In his talk Richard mentions several ways that this could be achieved
> for free software. He mentions the fact that developers could provide
> support, at cost, for the software, much like canonical do for ubuntu.
> However this is not rewarding the original work, this is rewarding the
> additional effort of supporting the software, expended above and beyond
> the original effort to develop the software in the first place.
>

Actually Ubuntu was not wholly developed by Canonical. They used free
software to build it, and this is where they gain (as everyone does)
from making their software free (as in freedom). In effect I see it
as:

Loss
  * They potentially lost profit from direct sales of the product

Gain
  * Fast development time (because they could use existing Free software)
  * No costs involved for using this tried, tested, external software in theirs
  * They benefit from a (potentially) unlimited number of developers,
which they don't have to pay
  * They benefit in various ways from the community that builds around
their project
  * More I probably didn't think of :)

In addition to this, they get all the possibilties you know of
already, as the creator of the software. Manuals, books, support,
training, CDs/DVDs, and other creative things. No doubt this
creativeness is the hardest part, but it is worth it. It just means
that unlike conventional business models, there is no "vanilla
flavour", each business needs to be inventive for their own model.

You can't argue it doesn't work, many businesses are already operating
this way, Canonical are not alone. It's certainly different, and
defies most people's usual logic, but I think people are slowly
accepting it.

Matthew :)