[pbhjpbhj]

You demand evidence, implicitly, but give none ... calling something revisionist (suggesting purposeful misleading, ie lying) without any backup is, um, a bit unfriendly. Maybe it was just that people in projects I came across followed that pattern of share-and-share-alike?

>Even today, I rarely see OSS project leaders actually saying they expected all users to give back something //

I've never seen it _demanded_ of anyone. Also, I think it largely went away in the early 2000s, as more, varied licenses came online bringing OSS a much broader base.

Pay-it-forward seemed to be a growing movement across society (well before Oprah latched on to it) but particularly on the 'net/burgeoning web. I used Slackware as my primary and got a lot of code from Sourceforge as well as using Debian and RedHat packages later.

Perhaps it was our approach [my, and other people with this impression]. That the first [and only] FOSS license I heard of was GPL, that the movement rallied (to my recollection) around that banner and so the idea of giving back was embedded -- I'm not a programmer. My self-apportioned part early on was to share Linux, help people with compilations and installs; act as a helper and advocate I suppose. It wasn't an explicit obligation, maybe it comes from transactional thinking having grown up in a Western Capitalist society under right wing governments?

[I'll have a dig around for some sources if I get chance.]