> And really paying for software is no guarantee that you won't also be the product - I'm not sure where that naive notion came from. It isn't a guarantee, but

> And really paying for software is no guarantee that you won't also be the product - I'm not sure where that naive notion came from. It isn't a guarantee, but not paying for software means that the developers have a strong incentive to figure out other means for extracting value out of you. So it isn't so much that paying for software wont make you the product as it is not paying for software will make you the product (note that this is when businesses are concerned - personally as an individual i give a bunch of stuff for free and i do not care about getting any value out of them, but at the same time i wouldn't build a business around giving out stuff for free).