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1. Christopher M. Hobbs (cmhobbs@loadaverage.org)'s status on Friday, 20-May-2016 14:37:13 UTC Christopher M. Hobbs
   I'm growing weary of the uphill battle that is trying to convince my employers and clients to release their code under a Free Software license. I've won a lot of those battles but the same conversation seems to occur. It usually goes something like this:
   
   me: "We should release this code under a Free Software license. It's great for the users and the community."
   
   them: "I paid for this software, won't they just run their own copies?"
   
   me: "They can but there isn't any secret sauce in your source code. Your company is the secret sauce. Nobody can do it better than you."
   
   them: "I paid for this software. I'm not giving it away for free."
   
   me: "You can still charge for access to it."
   
   them: "My competitors will copy it."
   
   me: "Your competitors will be required to release their changes under the same license, so you can benefit from your competitor's work."
   
   them: "No."
   
   Sometimes they'll have software patents. If they do, that'll shut down the conversation before it even begins. I'm not sure how to politely inform people that their software is not necessarily their product nor do I know how to explain how it's good for the users without berating them for their business practices.
   
   It doesn't help that I believe capitalism to be the root of a lot of these software problems. I always keep that out of the conversation, though.
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   • Christopher M. Hobbs (cmhobbs@loadaverage.org)'s status on Friday, 20-May-2016 14:40:58 UTC Christopher M. Hobbs
     I often have this same issue with discussions of anarchism or privacy/encryption. The latter usually goes something like this:
     
     me: "We should encrypt our communications so we have some semblance of privacy."
     
     them: "I have nothing to hide."
     
     me: "What about others that do? What if you eventually have something to hide? What about that weird spot on your toe that you hit up WebMD about?"
     
     them: "People who have to hide are probably doing illegal things."
     
     me: "What if that illegal thing is the moral and ethical thing to do?"
     
     them: "Dont' be silly, our laws are valid."
     
     At that point, I just choose something else to talk about because I'd like to stay buddies.
     
     I feel like I'm either not educated enough on some of the matters that are important to me *or* I don't have a vehicle to convey the thoughts in a manner in which they will find important.
     
     I'm not even a "real activist" and I'm already tired of trying to carry the banner for some of this stuff. I'm regularly seen as a nutter, a hippie, a leftist, or at best, an obsessive hobbyist.
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   • Benedikt Geißler 🐃 (benediktg@gnusocial.de)'s status on Friday, 20-May-2016 20:15:07 UTC Benedikt Geißler 🐃

     • Christel T.
     @jcaktiv @cmhobbs This is a nice article: http://www.cio.com/article/3067352/linux/you-cant-make-money-from-open-source.html
     Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) repeated this.
   • Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) (clackemovedtoheldscalla@quitter.se)'s status on Saturday, 21-May-2016 02:55:57 UTC Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠)

     in reply to

     • Benedikt Geißler 🐃
     • Christel T.
     @benediktg @jcaktiv @cmhobbs Canonical is not doing "just fine". It only survives because #sabdfl made a boatload of money in the 90s.