Re: Tax writeoff for Open Source Developers?

[Steve Cohen <stevecoh@mcs.com>]

Brett Glass wrote:

> At 07:44 PM 12/20/98 -0500, Sujal Shah wrote:
>
> >> As I have asserted many times before, software published under the
> >> GPL is not a public good.
>
> >Why not?
>
> Because it puts valuable innovators, workers, and businesses OUT of
> business while giving nothing back.
>
> >> As one said to me over a beer a few nights ago, "Might as well take up
> >> plumbing."
> >
> >Then your friend(s) is/are stupid, quite frankly.
>
> No, he's the most brilliant person I know. He has a keen perception
> of the landscape and can recognize unfair competition and predatory
> tactics, whether they're executed by a large company like Microsoft
> or by a loosely connected group of individuals.
>

Unless you give us some idea of the project ideas your friend has been
forced to abandon and a rough idea of which were forced to be abandoned due
to practices of Microsoft vs. due to practices of the "loosely connected
group of individuals", it is impossible to evaluate your claims.