this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2025
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Seems reasonable to me. Open Source is seen as virtuous and noble, but then big companies take that to mean they can leach off it while making huge profits.
It's very similar to the attitude to tax - companies avoid it aggressively, yet they use roads, benefit from schools, hospitals, rubbish collection, energy infrastructure and national security.
Maybe it's time for an ethos shift in the open source community. For example switching to licenses that stipulate if used commercially at certains scale, fees need to be paid.
I'd be wary of switching to a non-free license. The freedom to use for whatever is fairly core to the four freedoms. However all the main licenses specify the code is as-is and it's perfectly fair for the maintainer not to take on the unpaid burden on behalf of others making money with their work.