Re:Why don't you accept donations?
by wolverine876 on Monday December 06, 2021 @06:25PM
(#29467107)
> No donations should result in no expectations
Let's not take to a literal extreme the OP's simplified expression. It's a matter of degree, like almost everything in life.
Money is not the only source of responsibility. Most responsibilities in life are not a consequence of payment - from one perspective, payment-for-services exists to fill gaps in other responsibilities, to create artificial responsibility.
In gorhill's situation, speaking generally from my perspective (and not for gorhill), payment would seem to increase responsibility but it would not be absolute: People shut down for-profit businesses all the time. Users could be paying for gorhill's expenses in creating the existing software, which would imply no future obligation. And lack of payment doesn't eliminate responsibility: If you tell people you are going to do something, and they depend on you, you have some responsibility. Did gorhill promise to maintain it forever? No, but they aren't providing software for use today only; it's not like watching a TikTok video; software assumes longer-term use.
Let's not take to a literal extreme the OP's simplified expression. It's a matter of degree, like almost everything in life.
Money is not the only source of responsibility. Most responsibilities in life are not a consequence of payment - from one perspective, payment-for-services exists to fill gaps in other responsibilities, to create artificial responsibility.
In gorhill's situation, speaking generally from my perspective (and not for gorhill), payment would seem to increase responsibility but it would not be absolute: People shut down for-profit businesses all the time. Users could be paying for gorhill's expenses in creating the existing software, which would imply no future obligation. And lack of payment doesn't eliminate responsibility: If you tell people you are going to do something, and they depend on you, you have some responsibility. Did gorhill promise to maintain it forever? No, but they aren't providing software for use today only; it's not like watching a TikTok video; software assumes longer-term use.