re: core-js sadness,
Does FOSS need a non-commercial license?
@cobra@fedi.vern.cc @alcinnz @dheadshot
I remember hearing rms say that he paid the rent for several years by selling tapes of EMACS to people by mail.
With all FOSS projects being online, that's no longer a possibility.
I know it wouldn't be truly Free, but I'm wondering if something like CC BY-NC would be beneficial, or if people just need to be better at marketing themselves.
@RL_Dane @cobra@fedi.vern.cc @alcinnz @dheadshot
As the COMM major my tendency is to lean toward being good at marketing yourself. ;)
Here's the thing about licensing: for someone starting out in a field like writing or coding freelance, the concern is less that people will pirate your work or make it proprietary and more that they'll never run into it at all because your license was restrictive and people weren't sharing it.
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@RL_Dane @cobra@fedi.vern.cc @alcinnz @dheadshot
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My personal tendency is to lean toward putting things out there for free with permissive licenses to get yourself known, then to try and make some money off of your newfound popularity, perhaps by selling a service like hosting for a FOSS project you made.
@benjaminhollon Ah, “I’m giving you exposure and that’s more valuable then money” line.
Don’t do anything for free, if you want to make a career out of whatever. If your work is valuable to someone, make them pay.
That mindset is a problem with FOSS. It’s disingenuous. “I’m going to get people hooked, and start charging” is a very cynical attitude.
People who want to opt out of capitalism should have the option to opt out.
@jollyrogue @RL_Dane @cobra@fedi.vern.cc @alcinnz @dheadshot
I agree with the sentiment of not doing anything for free that you hope to make a living off of it, but I do think that Writing is a slight exception. I just have to be careful about *what* I make available for free.
@benjaminhollon There are shades to everything. Writing press releases for your local ASPCA for free is different then a very successful bakery.
Writing about hobbies because you like them is a different category.
People can do things because they like doing them.
@benjaminhollon @cobra@fedi.vern.cc @alcinnz @dheadshot
That makes sense, I submitted an issue to a project because they were using a fairly not-well-thought-out custom license. They listened and changed it to MIT, iirc.
But that was my reasoning: you're hurting adoption by not using a recognizable license.
What about a non-commercial-above-100-employees license? ;)
@RL_Dane @cobra@fedi.vern.cc @alcinnz @dheadshot
I still wouldn't use it for a business on the off-chance that my business would grow with a central dependency that I now can't use under the license I had.
Honestly I don't know that I'd use anything for a business of mine that had any terms restricting whether you can profit off of it. I respect that license, but if you don't want me making money, I won't use it for endeavours aimed at me making money.
@benjaminhollon @RL_Dane @cobra @alcinnz @dheadshot And here comes the funding option of selling GPL exceptions.
@RL_Dane @benjaminhollon The copyright owner can do that, yes.
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs
The typically means either CLAs (which are often abusive so no one's interested in contributing) or simply a project that's purposely developed by single person or team in cathedral development style.
Being good at marketing yourself without being good at *delivering* something customers are willing to pay for is not a path to success.
@AlgoCompSynth
Heh, well a look at my website will tell you I definitely have myriad things I make. ;)
But I agree, unless you want to be a marketer, in which case congratulations.
@benjaminhollon License really doesn’t matter. People aside from lawyers don’t look at licenses. They use it, share it, and move on with their day. Restrictive, permissive it doesn’t matter. Which is why a non-commercial license wouldn’t affect anyone.
Unless it’s a unicorn project like curl, which is very rare, people are probably going to get hired to work on something else. Most likely proprietary.
@jollyrogue @benjaminhollon @RL_Dane @cobra @dheadshot Some people get awefully opinionated about licensing, but while I have a preference for (A)GPL I'd rather not fixate on them.
There's numerous other factors which don't get the attention they deserve!