This reminds me of issues we face in the legal profession. Lawyers have convinced ourselves, through elaborate rationalization, that every person deserves legal

This reminds me of issues we face in the legal profession. Lawyers have convinced ourselves, through elaborate rationalization, that every person deserves legal representation. Yet lawyers clearly make decisions about what kind of work they want to do, and what kind of clients they are comfortable representing. For example, most divorce lawyers tend to specialize in representing husbands or wives (not both), and most employment and labor lawyers either represent the company or the employee consistently, etc. But on the other hand, many defense lawyers become prosecutors, and vice versa. The key is that whatever role we like to take, we make ethical decisions within that role. If I am a prosecutor, I work for the people and my job is to "do justice". If I defend accused criminals, my job is to advocate zealously for the accused b/c anyone may be falsely accused. This system relies on discretion -- that is, the individual professional is free to decide whether to pursue a matter or take on a client. Unfortunately discretion does not exist in most software development efforts. Unless you are contributing to free software on a voluntary basis, it is likely that you will be called upon from time to time to support businesses that you don't like. This is a hard problem and I don't think there is an easy answer. If anything, the answer may require that you forego many of the economic trappings of success if you wish to live an ethical life. I don't expect anyone to make that decision, although I admire those who do. Not so much the Richard Stallmans who can live on their celebrity, but the people who adhere to those ideals and do not have celebrity to fall back on when they can't make their rent.