And all this is bad for what reason exactly? If you see everything as a profit center - or, in other terms, something which gives 'economic benefits' (to whom?)

And all this is bad for what reason exactly? If you see everything as a profit center - or, in other terms, something which gives 'economic benefits' (to whom?) - I can understand why you're peeved by free software. From a user perspective I can see no downside to the availability of a large body of free software, au contraire. Understand that 'value' does not equal 'economic value'. There are many factors which make up the value of a good or a technology, some of them easily quantifiable - like your 'economic value', some of them less so. Also understand that in the long run the increased access to technology which free software and free protocols provide can actually lead to economic benefits as well. You use the web as an example to support your thesis. Imagine what would have happened if CERN decided to license and sell web technologies in the way Apple and Microsoft license and sell their products. You would not have been able to write your comment here, on this web site, using that browser. There would not have been a web site for you to write it on. Even if you were 'lucky' enough to have some corporate sponsor to pay for your 'Platinum web access' voucher your comment would probably have lingered in the void for lack of readership. The web would have resembled America Online or Minitel, with limited interaction and commercial sites only. It would also have given but a fraction of the 'economic benefits' of the current, open web.