Tax writeoff for Open Source Developers?

[Steve Cohen <stevecoh@mcs.com>]

http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/log/1998/12/15log.html

has an article about a proposal to allow a tax deduction for Open Source
Contributions.

Methinks 1) He'd better call it something other than "hacker tax credit"
or it's going nowhere.
2) It'd be too open to abuse.  Any moron could write some piece of crap,
get 1000 people to download it by false hype, and then petition to get
his whole computer system written off as a deduction.
It might be a good idea but it needs work.

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Do free-spirited open source software developers need a tax break?

Carl Malamud thinks so. Malamud -- a veteran creator of
public-interest-oriented Internet projects like the 1996 Internet
World's Fair -- has launched a campaign for what he calls the "Hacker
Tax Credit." In a letter to Vice President Al Gore and several members
of Congress earlier this week, Malamud argued that Congress could ensure
"a strategic national reserve of open source software" by enacting tax
rules that would allow developers
of any free software that's "used by at least 1,000 people" to count
their "development and
operational costs" as tax deductions.

"It is a happy accident that we have open source software, but there are
simple steps that the
federal government can take to provide even more fuel for the growth of
our information economy,"  Malamud wrote.

Of course, the nation's leaders may be a little preoccupied at the
moment. But Malamud, whose
efforts in the past helped get the databases of both the Securities and
Exchange Commission and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office made
available online, says he plans to push the campaign
throughout next year.

"I've chatted with a few members [of Congress] already and briefed some
White House staff and
there is definitely interest," he says. "I don't give up easily."
                                                    -- Scott Rosenberg
                                                    SALON | Dec. 18,
1998