Re: AW: [Fsfe-france-gpl] Re: GPL and Author law

[Loic Dachary]

Alessandro Rubini writes:
 > 
 > 
 > >    Page 13 says:
 > > "[...] it is precisely the gain in reputation that represents
 > > the reward for the programmer, [...]"
 > 
 > > People are altruistics, people do things for moral reasons.
 > > [...]
 > >    Because of that, I think it is incorrect to assume that
 > > Free Software developers are motivated by gain in reputation.
 > 
 > But still you can't pretend that people develop FS for altruistic
 > reasons only.  I'm a strong supporter of the idea that there is

        Of course. I don't claim that people only develop Free
Software for altruistic reasons. I only stress that it is wrong to
assume that the main incentive of Free Software developers is
gain in reputation. In the quoted text I'd rather phrase it this
way:

        "Free Software developers often get credit for the software
they wrote. The copyright holder of proprietary software is, most of
the time, a company and the individuals who actually did the job are
very rarely credited. It follows that the proportion of individuals
in position to act in the name of their moral rights is higher in the
Free Software field than when dealing with proprietary software".

        Or any other wording that is less likely to lead people to
think that Free Software authors are "paid" by the fame they get, thus
participating in an informal "fame economy" that would lead them to
fight for their "salary" using their moral rights. 

        That may seem a minor point but it is important to get it
right because this misconception was widely spread by 'Homesteading
the Noosphere' (see
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading/x207.html
in particular) and completly exclude moral motives.

        Cheers,

-- 
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