On Tue, 2004-03-30 at 08:50, Lee Colleton wrote: > I would like to formalize a legal contract that would preserve the > spirit of this perpetual gift in the letter of the law. This seems like > an endeavour that would strongly complement the Debian Non-Profit > project and the Free Software movement in general as it would make > possible the conditional gift of computer systems to charity with the > requirement that they remain gifts when they are subsequently replaced. > If there are any lawyers or law students that feel like doing a little > pro bono work then I beg of your assistance, as I have little experience > in writing contracts. Contracts won't do, because a contract requires a consideration to be exchanged for the offered benefits. But a gift isn't followed with consideration. The divergence perhaps gift and exchange is this simple: proper exchanges are fair, in that neither party has less afterwards. Gifts are only possible when somebody decides somebody else should have something they have. Whilst acknowledging the distinction between exchange value, use value, labour value, etc. I don't think that exchange, as such, is a problem (my lungs exchange air, my fireplace exchanges heat, etc), excepting the exceptional conditions within which workers exchange their lives in the so-called free labour market. Doesn't trying to do away with exchange, as such, seem just a little bit daft? Here: we're exchanging emails already! With my best wishes, John Bywater.
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