This email can be read as somewhat self serving. While I cannot deny 
that it is, I still think that the reasoning behind it is a valid one to 
apply, regardless of the case.


renaud cabrol wrote:

> I'm not a developer so I give back to the open source community by 
> donating to the FSF a % of my incomes.
>   
That seems strange to me. Sure, you are using stuff written by the FSF 
(such as the GNU toolchain), but I hardly think that is the main focus 
of what you do with free software. If you want to encourage the people 
responsible for your income, you should give money to software projects 
based on how specific they are to what you do.

I would have expected you to donate money to Debian, for example, more 
than you would to the FSF. If rsyncrypto/rsync are central to what you 
make a living off, I would have expected you to donate to them (obvious 
non-objectivity warning goes here). This way you encourage exactly the 
technologies *you* need, rather than some abstract goal.

All major projects (Debian, Apache etc.) accept donations. Many smaller 
projects do too (sourceforge even has a special mechanism for that 
through paypal. So far, rsyncrypto has recruited a whopping $9!!!). Even 
for projects that don't, I doubt that if you contact the relevant 
mailing list and say "I am using your project to make money, and would 
like to contribute some back. Can you give me your paypal account to 
send money to" you will receive "no" as an answer.

Lastly, and less this email is read as criticism, I wanted to say "well 
done". Your idea is definitely right. I just think that your personal 
interests are better served by paying (no more than you do today or feel 
comfortable) the projects that have the greatest impact on your 
business, rather than the FSF who likely have relatively little 
influence over the specifics of your day to day FOSS use.

Shachar

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