Charityware

[Tim May]

My advice to Monty Cantsin or whomever actually wrote this: write shorter
pieces! The quote-and-coment style, especially for very long pieces,
usually results in people skipping huge sections, or the whole thing. I
only scanned this and stopped when I saw the word "cryptoanarchist."

At 4:41 AM -0700 11/3/97, Mix wrote:
(quoting someone else)

>>New payment models will need to come in.  How can you extract money
>>from a cryptoanarchist?  Copyright?  Patent?  Hah, hah.
>
>The important thing is establishment of the custom.  Most
>cryptoanarchists with class will pay.  The way to do this is to make
>it clear from day one that it is not free software.  If you want to
>run it, you should buy it.  (The problem with share ware is that people
>get used to "borrowing" it.)

_This_ cryptoanarchist will almost _never_ pay for that which is free.

If someone gives me something, no strings attached, and then says, "Oh, the
"suggested donation" is $10," I tell them that they should have charged me
that in the first place. (I'm obviously not fond of leftie events which are
advertised as free, but which require a mandatory voluntary "suggested
donation.")

More to the point, I use various freebies I get off the Net. Some of them
have obscure schemes for sending payments to the alleged authors. Too much
hassle. And if it's _free_, why pay anything?

Charityware is not a viable business model.

--Tim May


The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."