* Manoj Srivastava (srivasta@debian.org) wrote: > On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 16:27:15 -0500, Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net> said: > > Perhaps not, as I said, I thought it'd be an interesting discussion, > > not that we should go out and market it as a new Debian thing to do. > > I don't mind valid critiques of why something isn't workable, I do > > mind knee-jerk reactions of "I'll quit if Debian does that." > > Is someone quitting? Hay, maybe we are getting close to a > release. On the other hand, trivializing objections people have to > commercialization of Debian does not advance your cause. I do have > objections to Debian starting down this path, and for precisely the > same reasons: I think that the influx of money would make it hard to > prevent abuse, or the appearance of abuse, and the resulting ill-will > would be detrimental to the project. The obvious flaw in your argument is that Debian already has an influx of money. It's not anything new to us and it's pretty unlikely to stop. Your arguments about the evils of money are therefore not pertinant to the disucssion unless you feel that because it's money *for* something as opposted to an outright donation will somehow make the money *more* evil and more likely to be abused. Personally, I don't believe that. The only aspect of this that's up for discussion is if Debian should consider providing something (a magazine, subscription-only website, pay-for-bugfix, consulting, CDs, web hits/ad space, someone's name on a Debian Doner's webpage, whatever) to generate additional funds beyond just the outright donations that we accept now. For those who have their doubts, it is certainly possible to do this in a way that doesn't violate our non-profit status in the US, though we'd probably want to double-check with the laywers about it. I work for a non-profit company in the US (http://www.mitretek.org). Funds that aren't spent covering payroll, healthcare, internet access and other expenses are often put into R&D work. Perhaps there are abuses of the funds, or the appearance of abuse, or ill-will towards us, but in general we continue to grow each year which allows us to do more, in the public interest. Stephen
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