Re: KickStarter for Debian packages - crowdfunding/donations for development
On Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 5:50 PM, Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com> wrote:
> I'd like to add a feature to apt that enables people to donate money or
> crowdfund a particular project or developer. The inspiration for the
> project comes from [1]Gittip.
Another issue/can of worms: Someone started a thread on an ubuntu list
asking how to get a company's proprietary software into multiverse.
The generic response, as usual, is to either us a PPA or try to twist
a DDs arm to get it into non-free (if it is redistributable). DDs
don't want to use their volunteer time on non-free projects, but while
thinking of the response I was aware about how financial incentive may
change a DD's opinion. As a member of the bitcoin team in debian, I
also see how easy it could be in the future to semi-anonymously
receive payment from and to anywhere in the world for such work, and
that this may already be going on already in Debian or other distros.
Allowing quick in-distribution monetization of effort potentially
opens up a market for DDs to work on packaging specific commercial
(and free) projects for pay. On one hand, it feels like it ruins the
"free-ness" (both in beer and speech) of Debian (although there is no
rule saying you have to pay to get in), but on the other hand
explicitly rejecting monetization feels like we are discriminating
against the commercial field of use, which is also a non-free act
(kind of what Martin Owen is saying).
I don't know how I feel about this, fundamentally, yet. But my gut
didn't like the idea of having a wiki page where DDs can post their
hourly rates for packaging software for Debian...
This is just a warning of one way I can see such an official donation
system evolving in a few years. I still prefer donating to the project
as a whole just to avoid this mess for now.
~Scott
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