Alessandro Rubini writes:
Page 13 says: "[...] it is precisely the gain in reputation that represents the reward for the programmer, [...]"
People are altruistics, people do things for moral reasons. [...] Because of that, I think it is incorrect to assume that Free Software developers are motivated by gain in reputation.
But still you can't pretend that people develop FS for altruistic reasons only. I'm a strong supporter of the idea that there is
Of course. I don't claim that people only develop Free Software for altruistic reasons. I only stress that it is wrong to assume that the main incentive of Free Software developers is gain in reputation. In the quoted text I'd rather phrase it this way:
"Free Software developers often get credit for the software they wrote. The copyright holder of proprietary software is, most of the time, a company and the individuals who actually did the job are very rarely credited. It follows that the proportion of individuals in position to act in the name of their moral rights is higher in the Free Software field than when dealing with proprietary software".
Or any other wording that is less likely to lead people to think that Free Software authors are "paid" by the fame they get, thus participating in an informal "fame economy" that would lead them to fight for their "salary" using their moral rights.
That may seem a minor point but it is important to get it right because this misconception was widely spread by 'Homesteading the Noosphere' (see http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading/x207.html in particular) and completly exclude moral motives.
Cheers,