Hear me out on this. The very concept of Libre, in abstract and in software, includes the free ability to distribute, copy, modify, etc. This is true of Libre 3D models, FLOSS hardware, and the like. This implies that it’s only Libre if it’s also gratis, otherwise you create an economy of inequity, with one person paying for it, and the rest getting it from them for free.

It’s generally OK to charge someone for labor, but the FSF and GNU project actively encouraging users to sell Libre products at as high a markup as they can get away with (“Actually, we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge as much as they wish or can.” From the GNU project https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html) is just shilling for capitalism in a broken world.

Obviously this is in the context of currency, the economies of effort, thought, and exchange are more complex.

  • twopi
    12·
    3 years ago

    When I first saw the title of the post I was like “Oh, boy.” But when I read your post I completely agree with it.

    I disagree with the other commentators here. There is a difference between asking for a donation and saying to a person “If you give me this amount of money I’ll give it to. Otherwise, no.” This difference is clearly seen in people distributing LibreOffice. On the Microsoft Windows Store LibreOffice is sold here (Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/libreoffice-vanilla-71/9mwjq9tx63f9#activetab=pivot:overviewtab) by allotropia software GmbH (Link: https://www.allotropia.de/). It is pretty expensive, not nearly as expensive as MS office but definitely more than zero. Apparently allotropia software GmbH does work on LibreOffice but the software is freely distributed on libreoffice.org yet that information is not present.

    I fully agree with the opinion of “Free Software” being “Free as in free access not free as in free beer” rather than “Free as in free speech not free as in free beer”.

    FSF and GNU is very American and Propertarian of this. It’s part of their ideology and is something I think needs be rethought about. It’s something a more internationalist focus can bring attention towards.