>I think the point is, how can we make it so the companies that build profitable products using open source code can support the developers who build those open

>I think the point is, how can we make it so the companies that build profitable products using open source code can support the developers who build those open source libraries? This. This is the conversation we need to have. However, I doubt that a public company on the USA stock exchanges -- which by definition is concerned with a Capitalist maximization of shareholder value, can rely on donations. They need to be able to return venture capital money at a multiple. So, why did they take the cash in the first place? So that they can build a company to govern and employ the team members and build expertise to fund the R&D needed to build the product and support customers. It seems unfair to me that a company with deep resources chooses to fork and modify instead of investing in the company and owning a stake to help influence the roadmap and/or enter into a resale / partnership model for monetization. It's a tough scenario and it needs to be discussed.