[londons_explore]

> and the software is also available for free under the same or similar terms

This would be illegal in many countries. The business must behave in its best interests. If software is available for free, yet they choose to pay for it, they aren't acting in their own best interests in the eyes of the law....

[Denvercoder9]

Hence you pay for "support", not the software.

[jart]

It sounds more like kelnos is paying for influence. Sort of like inviting your congressman to dinner and drinks rather than writing an email for free.

[simongr3dal]

It would be in the interest of the software company that a open source dependency stays around and continues to get updates etc.