[thrdbndndn]

I personally don't think we should expect more from a "richer" user as soon as they're following the license of OSS (or expect anything different at all, regardless users' background or purpose).

It just doesn't make sense, not even morally.

[benj111]

Not only that but Macdonald's presumably paid for this game to be developed etc.

That developer is more directly profiting from the tools. If you want to make a moral argument, surely it's them that should be passing money down the chain.

If I buy something from Amazon, should it be on me to identify the open source projects they use and pay them? Further where does it stop? Someone presumably used Linux in all this, do I need to send Linus a cut? Which driver writers do I need to support? How many copies of busy box were used in all this?

[mickael-kerjean]

Where do you put the bar of the legal vs morale argument? A few days ago, I discovered a government entity in Pakistan was using my AGPL software [1] to handle censoring of media through their "ministry of information and broadcasting". I did release my software under AGPL as I like the underlying ideology of free software with a large emphasis on the freedom and not the free of charge but would have never expect some regime would come to use it to handle censoring.

[1]: https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash

[thrdbndndn]

I personally think your particular scenario is the easier one: such "client" will ignore any license requirement or "moral pressure" anyway, as soon as they can acquire the software in some way. There shouldn't be moral burden on the devs. You do more good (way more) than harm. Otherwise I doubt Linus can sleep at night. I'd say this is no difference from, say, a knife manufacturer when it comes to the harm the knives do.

Commercial use is something devs are more torn because they feel they're being exploited while the client is not doing anything wrong inherently (doing business).

And in that case, you have to adjust your expectation to be exactly the same as the license you put in to resolve such cognitive dissonance.

[vocatus_gate]

"the harm the knives do"

Ah yes, those famous knives that jump up and attack people, when they're not too tired from autonomously cutting steaks and chopping vegetables.

[thrdbndndn]

You got what I meant. Sorry, not a native speaker.

[sunnybeetroot]

No need to apologise, your post made sense.

[earthscienceman]

Woah. This is really an incredible project. I'm currently running a seafile server for this purpose but it really isn't all that great and I keep debating going back to simple SFTP. Using your frontend would be a great addon.

Very nice work and congrats on taking this on successfully.

[ekianjo]

You used the wrong license then.

[hnbad]

Morally, everyone in a value chain should get a cut, including the cleaning lady keeping your toilet stalls fresh and the midwife who helped deliver her.

Alas our cultural narrative frames achievements as products of genius individuals existing in a vacuum rather than celebrating them as accomplishments of humanity or at least the societies that enabled them to be brought about.

So yeah, legally it doesn't make any sense. Morally it's highly debatable.

[pdntspa]

But... but... but... the startup bros compel you to monetize! How could you leave money on the table?!?!? [/sarcasm]