From 00666562742058e082b0a2a0a52cc2ac56549c5e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: wiz Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:43:23 +0000 Subject: Add fairware-license for moneyguru. --- licenses/fairware-license | 77 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 77 insertions(+) create mode 100644 licenses/fairware-license (limited to 'licenses') diff --git a/licenses/fairware-license b/licenses/fairware-license new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..fd0ce0e3d1e --- /dev/null +++ b/licenses/fairware-license @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +From http://open.hardcoded.net/about/ on 2012-10-27. + +About Fairware + + Free as in speech, Fair as in trade + +"Fairware" is a term I coined recently to designate open source +development of software targeting a wide audience (typically +published in the form of "Shareware" in the proprietary world) with +expectation of fair compensation from users. It's a mix of two +driving principles: + +1. Intellectual property doesn't make sense (at least in the software +world). The protection of intellectual property causes much grief +all over the world, all the time. Software patents threatens +developers at every corner, like land mines. Proprietary licensing +makes developers create the same software over and over again in +a silly competition game, making the end user suffer in the end +(for not having access to the collaborative effort instead of the +competitive one). Some users fall in the hands of some unethical +software companies that will squeeze every penny they can from +them, taking advantage from the fact that they're captive users. + +2. Developers have to eat. It's hard for open source developers +doing generic software targeting a wide audience to get compensated +for their work. Sure, they may receive some donations from users, +but certainly not enough to allow them to work full time on their +applications. Because of this, they only work on their open source +software in their spare time, and this generally reduces the quality +of it. Chances are, if they could, they'd quit their day job and +work on their software full time, creating a fair alternative to +their proprietary competitors, slowly making intellectual property +irrelevant, but money unfortunately flows towards these proprietary +software developers, starving the overall open source effort. + +Fairware is open source software with the assumption that some +users are fair. If we can assume that (and I sure hope we can), we +can build a system helping them to "express their fairness" (to +contribute). With the typical "Donate" button, figuring out what +is the fair thing to do is hard, even for a fair user (read this +article for more details). Who worked on the project? How many +hours? How much did they receive yet? These are all questions that +need to be answered before determining a fair amount of money to +give to a project. Chances are, even when users are fair, laziness +takes over and these users end up not donating, for lack of +information to make a correct judgement. + +How does Fairware work? All hours developers invest in projects +are public, as well as their hourly rate expectations. All +contributions from fair users are also instantly made public +(anonymously). When contributions are made, they are allocated to +unpaid development hours (see the F.A.Q. for details). Everyone +can thus easily know how many hours have yet to be compensated. +Also, users are made aware that the software is Fairware with a +dialog that pops up for users who haven't contributed yet, reminding +them of expectations from developers. With enough fair users, such +a system allows open source developers working on software for a +wide audience to do so full time. I don't know about you, but I +find that awesome. + +An opt-in system. After a couple of testing and tweaking of the +fairware system, I realized that many users didn't want to hear +about intellectual property and just wanted to know how much it +costs. By trying to force them to learn about fairware, there's a +risk of alienating them and thus turning away a user who would +otherwise pay for the software. This is why I recently made the +fairware system optional. By default, HS apps behave like shareware +apps: You can try it for free, but unless you pay for it, there +are demo limitations. This way, we don't confuse newcomers ("An +open source app for which I have to pay?! What is this new devilry?"). +Now that you've read about fairware, if you want to enable the +fairware mode, all you have to do is to open the registration key +dialog, type "fairware" in any of the two fields and click submit. + +Developers wanted! Are you a developer? Do you like this idea? +Whether you'd like to get involved with HS projects, or make your +own Fairware project, please let me know! -- cgit v1.2.3