drew Roberts wrote: > On Friday 12 September 2008 15:14:03 Bob van der Poel wrote: >> On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 06:50:42PM +0200, Grammostola Rosea wrote: >>>>> When you give a course it cost you: time, traveling costs >>>>> (Brussels > R'dam) organization, making a course book (and copy >>>>> it?) and linux audio usage, educational and presentation skills.... >>>>> that could deserve some money.... >>>> I agree. OTOH, one reason why the course is given in >>>> English in the centre of the Dutch/Flemish language >>>> region may be that a lot of the course material is >>>> just copied from material available on the web. >>>> In that case I just hope that Mr. Moors has all >>>> the copyright issues sorted out. >> Really, what is the problem here? >> >> If you think the course is too expensive ... don't go. >> >> If you can do better ... offer your own course. >> >> If you want to teach for free then do so; if you want to get paid, >> then charge. >> >> If you don't want your stuff copied off the web and used in a >> commercial manner: don't post or affix a "not for commercial use" >> copyright. BTW, the GNU licence doesn't support this so you'll have to >> use a different one (correct me if I'm wrong). >> >> Isn't the whole point of freedom the ability to do what you want to >> do? >> >> I have donated a lot of software over the years ... and I've sold >> stuff as well. But, one thing I will not do anymore is to play for >> free. Too many times I've done just that for some good cause which >> doesn't have any budget this year ... and then next year, when they do >> have some money, they hire and pay someone from out-of-town. I'm sure >> the same applies to teaching. > We all likely tend to develop our own rules of thumb over the years. I > try not do do any windows tech support gratis for friends and family > anymore. I have moved away from windows to avoid those problems and > paid the price in various ways to do so. I don't see why I should pay > for them not doing so. > >> Please don't confuse freedom and free beer! > Indeed. Also, look at the speaking fees famous people get. I am sure a > part of the fee goes to being able to say you rubbed shoulders with > that famous person as opposed to the content of the speech you heard. > > And as someone has already pointed out in another way, if this course > is successful, everyone now has a model to follow should they wish to > do so. > > Re playing for free for charities and the like. Perhaps do so with a > bill that comes due should they pay another act in the future? (If you > value the charity that is.) No, that probably wouldn't go anywhere. Better to work out a *price* with the charity (based on how much you might charge normally) - and make it a donation and documented as such by the charity. Then you get a tax benefit (at least in the US).