Well, you're right. But in his fight for what he considers right, he is actually producing something of value (ie, the GNU software suite). RMS and the FSF are well regarded not only because they're fighting towards making technology more open and more accessible, but because they're producing a bunch of great software to prove that they are right. What they said was, basically, this: "You think only large corporations with multi-million research budgets can produce good software? Here, take this compiler, this OS, this text editor and all these cool utilities. We built this in our spare time.", and people went: "Hell, the guy's got a point.". TPB, on the other hand, goes: "Hey! Your business practices are flawed. We'll just steal your stuff until you give up.", and people go: "Yeah! You show them who's boss!".
People seem to love Robin Hood. I prefer John Galt.
People seem to love Robin Hood. I prefer John Galt.