New Funding For Free Software In The UK
AFFS writes "A new free software grants fund is available to projects in the UK
from money raised by the UK Free Software Network UKFSN.org, the free
software ISP set up by Jason Clifford in 2003,
and donations to UK's Association for Free Software AFFS.
The grants are open to any free software project or related campaign, by
both individuals and groups."
It's money for the act of developing the software, not for copying it. Shareware restricts you from sharing the software with your friend, that's not what the AFFS is interested in.
"Elmo knows where you live!" - The Simpsons
Many times I've seen worthwhile projects suffer because the primary, and often only, author of the software has to cease development in order to earn a decent living.
There are also several areas where Free Software offerings are either pathetic or simply don't exist. This is usually because there is little interest among developers in writing such software. One of the aims I had in setting out to raise such funding is to provide an incentive for good developers to write such software to be released under a Free Software license.
Don't forget that Free Software does have a cost. That cost may not be charged onto the users but the developers always have to pay it in terms of their time and resources. Increasingly they also have to worry about legal expenses as well.
I assure you that UKFSN is not a scam. The accounts are published in an effort to ensure that this is clear.