fsf-funding(7) - phpMan

FSF-FUNDING(7) GNU FSF-FUNDING(7)

NAME
fsf-funding - Funding Free Software

DESCRIPTION
Funding Free Software

If you want to have more free software a few years from now, it makes sense for you to
help encourage people to contribute funds for its development. The most effective ap-
proach known is to encourage commercial redistributors to donate.

Users of free software systems can boost the pace of development by encouraging for-a-fee
distributors to donate part of their selling price to free software developers---the Free
Software Foundation, and others.

The way to convince distributors to do this is to demand it and expect it from them. So
when you compare distributors, judge them partly by how much they give to free software
development. Show distributors they must compete to be the one who gives the most.

To make this approach work, you must insist on numbers that you can compare, such as, ``We
will donate ten dollars to the Frobnitz project for each disk sold.'' Don't be satisfied
with a vague promise, such as ``A portion of the profits are donated,'' since it doesn't
give a basis for comparison.

Even a precise fraction ``of the profits from this disk'' is not very meaningful, since
creative accounting and unrelated business decisions can greatly alter what fraction of
the sales price counts as profit. If the price you pay is $50, ten percent of the profit
is probably less than a dollar; it might be a few cents, or nothing at all.

Some redistributors do development work themselves. This is useful too; but to keep ev-
eryone honest, you need to inquire how much they do, and what kind. Some kinds of devel-
opment make much more long-term difference than others. For example, maintaining a sepa-
rate version of a program contributes very little; maintaining the standard version of a
program for the whole community contributes much. Easy new ports contribute little, since
someone else would surely do them; difficult ports such as adding a new CPU to the GNU
Compiler Collection contribute more; major new features or packages contribute the most.

By establishing the idea that supporting further development is ``the proper thing to do''
when distributing free software for a fee, we can assure a steady flow of resources into
making more free software.