Would it be unethical to make profit off donations?

[Red Squirrel]

I just started coding a web hosting control panel. I will use it for myself only but I have possible plans to release it to public. I don't believe in charging for software and don't want to charge for it, but I would put up a paypal donation link for those who feel they want to pay something for it. It would be open source as it pretty much HAS to be open source as you can't distribute a Linux binary (won't work in any Distro but the one I compiled under).

My cost of this would be next to null unless it gets so big I need a dedicated server to host it, so any donation money would be profit. Basically it's money that would be people's way of paying for my time for the project. But really it's pure profit and voluntary.

Now would this be considered unethical? If you downloaded a free piece of software you really like, would you donate knowing the author is simply pocketing the money?

 

[Flammable]

isnt that what the donate button is for

 

[JohnCU]

i fail to see how that's unethical

 

[sixone]

If I know who I'm donating to, it's not a problem. The whole point of donating in return for free s/w is to give the developer something back.

 

[rezinn]

Trust me, you won't have to worry about people donating.

 

[her209]

No. Yes.

 

[Q]

Tons of websites do that, it's not unethical at all.

 

[CrazyLazy]

No, you put your time into it and we are compensating you for that by using the donate button.

 

[JS80]

What do you think a non-profit organization is? A corporation that has donations and revenues and remains non-profit by paying high salaries to management.

 

[frostedflakes]

Lol, why would see anything wrong with that?

I don't really care what they do with the money. It's basically just a way to say thanks for doing what you do. I have a lot of respect for people who sacrifice their free time to develop software for the open-source community.

If you have no intention to continue development, though, I'd be sure to make it clear that this software was written for your needs and you're simply releasing to the public for others to use if they desire. You might kind of get into a nasty situation if you have a lot of people donating with the expectation that you'll continue developing the software.

 

[Baked]

See politicians, except they call it lobbying.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Good to know. I pretty much saw it that way too but was wondering what others' opinions were. Guess it's way better then pulling off a Microsoft highway robbery scheme. In my case I'm not forcing anyone to give money.

 

[Bulk Beef]

If I ask people to give me money, and they give me money, should I take their money?

 

[sandorski]

OMG dude, how could you?? :|

Umm, as long as you tell the Truth as to what the "Donate" is for, what could possibly be wrong with it? Hell, you could tag a Donate to "Help a Freeloader Freeload!" and if people want to Donate, that's their choice.

 

[DaveSimmons]

As long as you don't make false claims about the donations going to some other cause this is 100% ethical. In ancient times the word used for this was "shareware."

[ Support development of KontrollKonzole ] <-- ethical!

[ Donate to feed orphan puppies! ] <--- not ethical!

Any questions?

If I continue to use some freeware product that has a donation button then I don't mind sending some money, whether it goes to feed orphan puppies or for hookers and blow.

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: rezinn
Trust me, you won't have to worry about people donating.

Agreed. OP, don't count your chickens before they hatch.

 

[Epic Fail]

Originally posted by: Bulk Beef
If I ask people to give me money, and they give me money, should I take their money?

No, you give the money to me.

 

[Crusty]

I don't understand why you think you can't distribute linux binaries instead of source. All of those packages you install through aptitude, yum, or yast are all binary distributions. There's no reason why you have to distribute with source, unless you pick such a restrictive license. Most of the time you only have to provide the source code and not distribute it along with your binaries.

 

[rh71]

if it's not required, there's nothing wrong with doing it.

 

[Insomniator]

OP makes no sense at all.

 

[jadinolf]

Nothing wrong with it and good luck to you.

 

[yoda291]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
As long as you don't make false claims about the donations going to some other cause this is 100% ethical. In ancient times the word used for this was "shareware."

[ Support development of KontrollKonzole ] <-- ethical!

[ Donate to feed orphan puppies! ] <--- not ethical!

Any questions?

If I continue to use some freeware product that has a donation button then I don't mind sending some money, whether it goes to feed orphan puppies or for hookers and blow.

what kind of monster hates orphan puppies.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Guess it's way better then pulling off a Microsoft highway robbery scheme. In my case I'm not forcing anyone to give money.

Neither does Microsoft.

 

[little elvis]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Guess it's way better then pulling off a Microsoft highway robbery scheme. In my case I'm not forcing anyone to give money.

Neither does Microsoft.

Try buying a PC without windows installed... I have 3 copies of Vista that I don't want, but paid for because it came preinstalled on my recent laptop purchases.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Nope totally cool