On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 11:17:06PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote: > On Sun, Nov 13, 2005 at 04:56:37PM +0100, Francesco Poli wrote: > > It resembles describing charity as "investment with no return". > > Perhaps; though there are differences. Charity does have returns: both > emotionally/psychologically, and in helping people get up on their feet > so they can trade with you / work for you / employ you in future. > Charitable donations might have different tax considerations too. > > By contrast, BSD-like licenses do nothing but give up your rights. > Copyleft licenses do something in between -- giving up your rights in > the hope that others will give up there's in return.
People get emotional/psychological benefits from giving away their free software work under BSD/copyleft licences too; people hope that they'll get contributions to their work from other people in return from making it freely available (even if they don't require contributions under even the limited set of circumstances in which copyleft licences require them); and people have certainly found employment as a result of people making use of things they've given away under free licences, although I don't think that's the primary motivator for most people much more than it is in the case of charity. I can't say that I understand your "by contrast" here. There are certainly differences, but, with the exception of tax considerations, most of the things you list don't really seem to be among them. Cheers, -- Colin Watson [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
