On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Richard Stallman wrote:
It isn't surprising that people who want to write non-free software are disappointed that the GNU project won't help them. What is amazing is that they feel this is unfair. They have no intention of letting me use their source code in my programs--so why should they be entitled to use my source code in their programs? These people seem to think that their selfishness entitles them to special treatment.
I've never heard anyone say it's unfair, I've just heard people claim that there's benefit they could be getting which is prohibited by it. This generally translates into benefit which is denied their clients as well, in addition to people who interact with their clients. I for one don't much care if code I write makes someone money in addition to doing some good, I just want it to be beneficial. Basic physical necessities, as well as business mechanisms, unfortunately make it impossible for all code I write to be distributed without some mechanism by which I could make money off of it. That doesn't mean my code is evil, just that I'm not independently wealthy. (Incidentally, the code I'm working on right now will probably wind up being free, with a considerably looser license than GPL.) -Bram