[AmericanChopper]

I contribute to various open source projects in various ways. But that’s really besides the point. I’m not against open source maintainers seeking funding, but in my opinion, this is just a remarkably terrible way of doing that, and undermines the credibility of the work they have done.

I also take issue with your implication that if somebody releases some work for free, that anybody who uses it now owes them something. I’ve released open source work before, and I’ve never even had the audacity to think that the people who use it are somehow indebted to me. Open source projects gaining a community following and then deciding ‘time to pay up’ and changing the license has happened in a few recent high-profile incidents, and it honestly makes reliance on open-source software a risk for anybody doing anything serious with it.