> You want to 'exploit' F/OSS? That's kind of a sick way to phrase it, no? This is one of the largest, kindest shares of modern human knowledge/artwork in hist

> You want to 'exploit' F/OSS? That's kind of a sick way to phrase it, no? This is one of the largest, kindest shares of modern human knowledge/artwork in history. I'm simply using the least charitable language to describe what I'd like to do (and what AWS has already done) -- there's no need to sugar coat. If someone (normally a group of people) has worked hard to create some software, and released this software as open source, and I take to hosting it for profit, I am exploiting their efforts without a doubt if only in the most literal definition-driven sense. As one would "exploit" natural resources, I would be taking the product of their effort and used it to generate profit. Whether they were kind or noble has nothing to do with it, though of course I agree that F/OSS is one of (if not the) largest and kindest sharing of knowledge in human history. I owe my career to F/OSS and the community that powers it (and of course a few schools and teachers along the way), I haven't forgotten. What I was trying to point out is that it's relatively easy for me to make a decision to give back 10/20/30+% of revenue (never take % shares of profit, see the movie industry) as a bootstrapper, where companies who are VC funded may not be able to make such a choice easily because they have other capitalists to answer to. > Don't _exploit_ the generosity of other people. Use it and contribute back to it. Framing it as something to exploit really emphasizes the need for the GPL. This is very close to my point -- if you don't want this to happen (no matter what someone calls it), pick the appropriate license -- BSSL or a similar license. Do not depend on the kindness of strangers, it's not a good long term strategy -- the GPL was invented to give that ideology teeth and it's been outrageously successful. Sentry, a well known and liked player in the error reporting space does so[0]. People use Sentry, and contribute to it, and love it. People who think picking GPL licenses will offer the same protections are somewhat misguided, the closes you can get is AGPLv3 which to be honest isn't even right, because hosting unmodified versions seemed to be permitted. I call it exploitation because that is what you have to assume that companies (which exist for a very specific reason in just about every economy in the world) will almost certainly skew in the direction of exploitation, they are basically duty-bound to do so. [0]: https://github.com/getsentry/sentry/blob/master/LICENSE https://github.com/getsentry/sentry/blob/master/LICENSE