From your perspective, a more charitable rewriting of the phrase should be "If a product or service that sounds like it should cost money is free, and it's obvi

From your perspective, a more charitable rewriting of the phrase should be "If a product or service that sounds like it should cost money is free, and it's obvious the product or service is not something being made available through gift/barter/mutual aid, then you might be a part of the product's revenue generation strategy."