Re: AW: [Fsfe-france-gpl] Re: GPL and Author law

[Loic Dachary]

Till Jaeger writes:
 > Hello,
 > 
 > you can find some information in our article in English (IIC, vol.32 1/2001;
 > http://www.tilljaeger.de/art10.pdf, page 13 - 15; but very huge file!) or in
 > German: GRUR Int. 1999, 839; http://www.ifross.de/ifross_html/art1.html).
 > 

        Thanks for the pointers. 

        Page 13 says:

"Since according to the copyright concept of the Free Software
Foundation it is precisely the gain in reputation that represents
the reward for the programmer, the latter will react all the more
sensitively to damage to his reputation"

        The Free Software movement (and the Free Software Foundation
in particular) does not deny that gain in reputation may be part of
the incentive of someone publishing Free Software. However, the
Free Software movement and the Free Software Foundation said in many
occasions that viewing this as the primary incentive is incorrect.

        People are altruistics, people do things for moral reasons.
People pushing Free Software for education do it so that their
children live in a better world. I know some people thought they
discovered why people write Free Software when they realized that it
may bring them some fame. These people have difficulties thinking that
individuals often do things for purely altruistic reasons.

        Because of that, I think it is incorrect to assume that
Free Software developers are motivated by gain in reputation.

        I have an additional question you may be able to answer.  Is
there an example of a software author who successfuly enforced his
moral rights ? That may help us understand the situation better.

        Cheers,

-- 
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