I was only commenting on the reasoning. It's not a question of evil, just of basic business incentives. > The truth is probably closer to being opposite than t

I was only commenting on the reasoning. It's not a question of evil, just of basic business incentives. > The truth is probably closer to being opposite than the anti-corporate crusader zeitgeist of HN. The point of the original comment was to express that behind all the corporations, there are just real people like you and me. I'm a (small) business owner so I'm fully conscious of that. But it's a reality that past a certain size a corporation will optimize for its best interests given the current set of rules (law). If a company contribute to open-source it's not because they are nice, it's because the added value in marketing/hiring/commoditizing their competitors makes business sense, otherwise no matter their convictions people would get punished in their performance review, and the stock value would tank. Only specific corporate structures allow people inside a company to go against the baseline.