They were never distributed as a business, even if they were distributed as a product or as a tech stack. Mastodon allows unconnected people and organizations t

They were never distributed as a business, even if they were distributed as a product or as a tech stack. Mastodon allows unconnected people and organizations to make hugely disparate investments in "connection technology" with potentially very different business models. Server A may require a monthly subscription from each of its clients, Server B may be getting micropayments from 0.001% of its clients, server C may be running completely free just for somebody's close friends. All these financial models can coexist on the same platform.