fsf-funding.7 6.4 KB

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  131. .IX Title "FSF-FUNDING 7"
  132. .TH FSF-FUNDING 7 "2021-06-21" "gcc-10.3.1" "GNU"
  133. .\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
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  136. .nh
  137. .SH "NAME"
  138. fsf\-funding \- Funding Free Software
  139. .SH "DESCRIPTION"
  140. .IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
  141. .SS "Funding Free Software"
  142. .IX Subsection "Funding Free Software"
  143. If you want to have more free software a few years from now, it makes
  144. sense for you to help encourage people to contribute funds for its
  145. development. The most effective approach known is to encourage
  146. commercial redistributors to donate.
  147. .PP
  148. Users of free software systems can boost the pace of development by
  149. encouraging for-a-fee distributors to donate part of their selling price
  150. to free software developers\-\-\-the Free Software Foundation, and others.
  151. .PP
  152. The way to convince distributors to do this is to demand it and expect
  153. it from them. So when you compare distributors, judge them partly by
  154. how much they give to free software development. Show distributors
  155. they must compete to be the one who gives the most.
  156. .PP
  157. To make this approach work, you must insist on numbers that you can
  158. compare, such as, \*(L"We will donate ten dollars to the Frobnitz project
  159. for each disk sold.\*(R" Don't be satisfied with a vague promise, such as
  160. \&\*(L"A portion of the profits are donated,\*(R" since it doesn't give a basis
  161. for comparison.
  162. .PP
  163. Even a precise fraction \*(L"of the profits from this disk\*(R" is not very
  164. meaningful, since creative accounting and unrelated business decisions
  165. can greatly alter what fraction of the sales price counts as profit.
  166. If the price you pay is \f(CW$50\fR, ten percent of the profit is probably
  167. less than a dollar; it might be a few cents, or nothing at all.
  168. .PP
  169. Some redistributors do development work themselves. This is useful too;
  170. but to keep everyone honest, you need to inquire how much they do, and
  171. what kind. Some kinds of development make much more long-term
  172. difference than others. For example, maintaining a separate version of
  173. a program contributes very little; maintaining the standard version of a
  174. program for the whole community contributes much. Easy new ports
  175. contribute little, since someone else would surely do them; difficult
  176. ports such as adding a new \s-1CPU\s0 to the \s-1GNU\s0 Compiler Collection contribute more;
  177. major new features or packages contribute the most.
  178. .PP
  179. By establishing the idea that supporting further development is \*(L"the
  180. proper thing to do\*(R" when distributing free software for a fee, we can
  181. assure a steady flow of resources into making more free software.
  182. .SH "SEE ALSO"
  183. .IX Header "SEE ALSO"
  184. \&\fIgpl\fR\|(7), \fIgfdl\fR\|(7).
  185. .SH "COPYRIGHT"
  186. .IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
  187. Copyright (c) 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  188. Verbatim copying and redistribution of this section is permitted
  189. without royalty; alteration is not permitted.