Re: Tax writeoff for Open Source Developers?

[Steve Cohen <stevecoh@mcs.com>]

Sujal Shah wrote:

> Brett Glass wrote:
> >
> > At 06:01 PM 12/20/98 +0000, Paul Crowley wrote:
> >
> > >Sorry, was the claim
> > >
> > >(a) that no software writing has ever been motivated by monetary reward
> > >or
> > >(b) that some software writing has not been motivated by monetary reward?
> >
> > Stallman's claim is that money is ALWAYS secondary.
> >
> > --Brett
>
> Could you point out where he said that?
>
> Additionally, I don't believe that favoring the tax break means that
> monetary reward is a motivation.
>
> I mean, we get tax breaks for moving expenses, but that doesn't mean
> that I'm going to move from one place to another for the monetary
> reward.
>
> To put it another way, if someone is providing a public good, it seems
> appropriate for the rest of the community to reward them.  This doesn't
> mean that they started the project for a tax break.  You're
> extrapolating this to an extreme to try to prove your point (of how
> Stallman and the GPL are evil/stupid/dumb/counterproductive/etc.).
>
> Also, I think that at the time that Stallman founded GNU, there wasn't a
> ton of money to be made in computers.  Unlike today, where people are
> taking CS majors and computer classes because of the money.  I would
> also believe that the latter group will be unlikely to start any free
> software project, because there is no motivation (the tax credit won't
> be that big a motivation... I mean, how much can a computer cost?).
>
> My point being that I think the tax break is a good idea, if
> restructered (1000 downloads are a little too low) and studied some
> more.  Core people and corporations like RedHat, the core GIMP team, the
> people working on GCC, etc. should be rewarded for basically providing a
> public good.  THey spend a lot of their time for the benefit of many.  I
> don't think downloads are a good measure, though... documenting any
> other measure will tough as well.  I don't know if it's practical, I
> guess is what I'm saying, but if a practical policy could be found, I
> would be in favor of it.
>
> Sujal
>

I think it is intriguing, and worth study, but I just can't think of a way to
make it work without some body to determine utility.  Number of downloads won't
cut it, it's too easy to manipulate.  And while I agree with you that
well-motivated programmers would not get into this for the deduction, I have
never seen any tax deduction that wasn't didn't attract a tax accountants in a
feeding frenzy, like that of sharks have for blood in the water.  Guess who
would wind up with the bulk of the deductions?