The real issue is people selecting a license that says something while actually wanting something else. You either develop open source because someone pays for

The real issue is people selecting a license that says something while actually wanting something else. You either develop open source because someone pays for it (in which case it's an ordinary business transaction) or because you find it inherently rewarding and you have another way of paying your bills. If any of these stops being true – if the business fails, if the hobby / volunteer project stops being rewarding, or if you need more time for a normal job – you abandon the project. Maybe someone else picks it up or maybe nobody does, but it doesn't matter. The traditional permissive licenses are named after universities, and they are modeled after the reward structures of the academia. A big company taking what you created and making billions with it (without giving you anything) is exactly the outcome you hoped for. You'll have some real-world impact to show the next time your performance is evaluated. If that's not what you wanted, you need to select a more appropriate license for your project.