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Re: Importance of price (was: Re: [ox-en] Slides for Lancaster)



Michael Bauwens wrote:
I must agree with the gratis part.

Saying that free software is free but not gratis is an
ideological statement, not a factual one.

Stating that it is free is a factual and analytical
one.

Can you elaborate on this ?

Pricing is a mechanism for allocating scarce
resources.

'Price' may be an interesting (and important) observable to
the user. What I find interesting, in particular in the current context
where Software Development and Art creation is compared, is the (possible)
underlying economic model, i.e. how do developers / artists reproduce their
ability to develop ? What makes their life sustainable ? If they don't
sell the product of their work in a conventional way, there must be alternatives ?
What are they ? (Example: Google pumps a considerable amount of money into
a huge 'Google Summer of Code' project, where developers are effectively sponsored
to work on projects of (almost) their own choice. There are parallels to art
creation...)

There is definitely a lot to be said (well, discussed) in the context of
Free Software and Art comparison, no doubt.

Regards,
		Stefan

-- 

      ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...
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