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FSF Launches Associated Membership Program
Andy Tai writes "The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has launched an associated membership program. Support Free Software by becoming an FSF associated member.
From the FSF website:
On Monday 25 November 2002, we launched the FSF Associate Membership
program. Now, you can support FSF by becoming a
card-carrying associate member.
You can find out about the rates and benefits
of membership, sign up to be an Associate Member,
login to edit your membership options, and even read briefly about some current projects of FSF.
" Seems a little odd to me, but what do i know ;)
FSF software is actually quite a bit more business friendly than MS software. With Linux I don't have some corp looking over my shoulder telling me how I can use their software and asking me to upgrade every 2 years for large sums of cash.
I don't believe the FSF has ever sicked the BSA on anyone either.
What's driving the economy isn't the software business, it's businesses using software. When businesses use open source software they can take ownership of it in ways they never could with proprietary software. There are no license restrictions, no pay to be current upgrade schemes, no sales reps dropping by the manager's office selling beta technology.
If Linux wasn't helping to drive the US economy, then Oracle and IBM wouldn't be standing behind it.
Perhaps you've heard of the DMCA?
If you dislike laws like that, wouldn't it be great to have an organization to help fight legal battles that might eventually bring down bad laws, or perhaps loobby to help stop them in the first place?
Well there is such an organization, it's called the EFF!! By giving money to them you aren't just helping develop free software, you are helping to pay for legal fight that make it possible to keep writing Free software.
Rather than waste any time and effort of futile boycotts, why not join the EFF instead and help an organization that is actually doing something real.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Jesus, it's amazing! $10 a month!? Everyone bitches about M$ and Windows day in and day out. Yet I'm sure IE is prob /.'s biggest browser client. How do you get that? Uh, you have to have Windows (or CX Office/Wine :). So, short of pirating copies to install, you've all bought $100 of M$ crap! Possibly on a yearly or so basis. Then people whine about $10 for a foundation that, at least tries to help distribution of code instead of locking it all up for just a few people to benefit from!
Does Stallman own all GPL code? No. Do users get to keep copyright to the code they contribute? Yes. Are you free to use pretty much any GPL code in your application *and* sell it? Yes. Just include the source.
Oh, you're right, grandma and grandpa and mom and dad and Jim VC-less research Nerd down the street will wanna steal your trade secrets and compile your latest source for the coolest Mozilla plugin, therefore, screwing you out of a fortune. Get real! The reason M$ has switched from panic mode to embrace mode is because they see Linux server and desktop shipments are on the rise. Without the GPL, the computer industry would be in worse shape than it is now. If Quicken doesn't wanna write a client because they can't innovate some way to make money on Linux, then so be it. Where they fall, others will rise.
Everyone want's freedom when it's gone or don't care about it when it's there. Well, screw that. If you don't want an IE dominated web, use Mozilla or the OS equiv. If you want a M$-less domintate office, use Open Office. If you want to have control of your own audio or video content use a GPL OS or OS X. And if you want freedom in an industry that mostly doesn't care much about your freedom, then consider a piddly, measely, $10/mo. Something you probably wouldn't think twice about paying to the latest crappy blockbuster movie out there. Jeeze, 10$..