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.

  • @daelphinuxOP
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    32 years ago

    The point is to make a system that’s better than capitalism… not reduce to that level. Because, what you just described sounds like shareware with extra steps.

    • Sagar Acharya
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      2 years ago

      I’d love that. The issue is just that you might need to become one of the most powerful men in your country. It’s harder than above solution implementation. Much harder!

      In fact designing a system better than capitalism is hard too. I’ve dwelled much on this problem too.