[kwlug-disc] Permissive vs copyleft licenses

[Andrew Sullivan Cant]

>> What are your thoughts around the use-and-fund model that GitHub
>> is promoting (GitHub Sponsors)? It starts at the 4min mark here:
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m9nUP-e8Co
>>
> 
>> The more I think about this sort of model, the more I think it will
>> become the norm in the future for open source projects.
> 
> Obviously, this idea has been floating around for a long time. The
> interface on Github is lower-friction than some of the alternatives.
> It does feel a bit like a walled garden, although strictly speaking
> this is not true.

Sponsoring projects/developers feels like it is part of the solution.
Similar to Patreon funded freely distributed content, software and
copyleft/open source software in particular has the same low cost to
distributed after it has been created.

I think economics nerds call these non-rivalous public goods. [1]

Supporting government sponsorship, either direct to projects or through
foundations, if probably also part of the solution. Again, because if
you work on this software you are producing a public good. Which in
theory is what our governments should be doing.

I can also tell a story where a lot of left-ish policies also support
this because they will reduce the time that people have to spend working
for pay, or worry about getting paid for every single thing they do.
(e.g., public healthcare, public child care, education UBI, better
workplace projection)

But that might all be a little more contentious. :)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good_(economics)

> Maybe the way this could be fixed is via shame. When a rich company
> uses some FLOSS project without paying for it, we could make viral
> Twitter threads that shame the company in question into paying
> $128/month or something. This would depend on us being able to see who
> is sponsoring projects and who is not.

I think that this is an interesting idea, which I have through/talked
about but never put any time behind. Public shaming, or public cuduos,
might be part of it.

But also an organized campaign to help employees get their companies to
support/donate. First encourage the employees to do it, and then build
materials to help make that easier:
* list of arguments
* easy directory of where to contribute
* easy material to promote that your company did it
* well documented ways for projects to accept money
  - donations to non-profits for some
  - invoice for just enough service to make it an expense, for things
like support, bug voting, company logos on project page


I think that most of this already exists in on more or another.

Andrew