The "Big Tech used my stuff and now I'm sad" story has happened so many times that it is ridiculous. You should be aware of this possibility before releasing yo

The "Big Tech used my stuff and now I'm sad" story has happened so many times that it is ridiculous. You should be aware of this possibility before releasing your stuff under a permissive license. And the proposed alternative is often copyleft, which doesn't make you any money and dissuades people from using your project. You need to understand these implications before jumping in. > your position is ridiculous by only believing that humans are incapable of cooperation without having something to gain from it I do believe that. They're always a motivation to gain something, even if it's the pride that you've helped financially support a project you believe in. My worldview is irrelevant though, the issue here is corporate structure, not human nature. It's difficult to convince a company to pay for something that is free, especially when the button says "Donate" and not "Buy". And even if you do, for a high-value FOSS component, the amount paid will never reflect the actual value they gained from it - think YouTube and ffmpeg, Apple and FreeBSD, or any SaaS and Linux.