[FM Discuss] updated IBD

[Daniel James]

Hi Adam,
>> Forking a project, adding a few lines and taking the original authors
>> name off is not good. People have done this by renaming Audacity (or
>> just hiding the name in screenshots) and selling it as a CD-R on eBay.
> 
> isnt that ok? commercial use of free materials is part of the
> ecosystem...we have to get used to it and, more importantly, we need it
> if free culture is to survive

In this case the people selling the CD-Rs were hiding attribution,
adding no value, and sending none of the money to the upstream project,
while disguising the fact that the software in question was Free
Software and available as a very small download. It was probably quicker
to download Audacity from Sourceforge than to go through the eBay checkout.

Commercial use in general, and commercial use running counter to the
interests of the free software/culture project and the people doing the
work on it are two very different things.

I think of it as a feedback loop. If the people doing the commercial use
are on balance taking resources away from the project, the feedback loop
is broken. There are plenty of unethical people who will take
good-natured and generous people for granted, if they can make a fast
buck. We don't 'need' that ecosystem at all :-)

Cheers!

Daniel