Re: Tocqueville on open source development

[Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>]

At 08:47 PM 11/7/98 -0500, James Love wrote:
 
>Eric Bennett said that Stallman "suggests replacing all (or perhaps
>even the majority of) commercial software with government-written
>software funded by a software tax."
>    
>    1.   Government written software?  I don't think Stallman said
>this?  Prove it.

I don't make unfounded assertions. Stallman has said -- not once
but quite a few times -- that a software tax should be levied and 
the proceeds given to the NSF for the development of GPLed software.
He reiterated this to me over lunch about four or five years ago in 
San Jose. (Actually, *I* ate lunch; Richard just held forth. ;-)

>  Just because you don't like someone's ideas doesn't mean you can put
>words in their mouth and then ridicule things they did not say.   I'll
>take all this back if you can produce a quote where Stallman says the
>things you say he says.  If you can't, then you should take it back.  

See my subsequent message, which must have crossed in the ether with
yours. As you'll see from it and from the document I reference there, he 
has not only said these things -- he has posted them on the Web for the
world to see. It may be hard for some who do not know him to believe that 
he goes this far.  But then, Richard himself admits that his views are 
extreme.

--Brett