It's not being a parasite if the author willingly chooses to give his work away for free. It is also not the tragedy of the commons, since the tragedy of the co

It's not being a parasite if the author willingly chooses to give his work away for free. It is also not the tragedy of the commons, since the tragedy of the commons refers to consuming a finite resource. A software library is not a finite resource since it can be copied indefinitely. This is the author choosing to work for free (which is fine), wanting to get paid (which is fine, and I do suggest he does charge for his software), and this thread making up an alleged ethical obligation to pay for something which has a price tag of zero.