[ezekg]

This is a false dichotomy. You assert that because a company wants to share its source code that it's also soliciting free work. Personally, I’ve never asked for free work. I don’t want free work. I actually don’t even care if anybody contributes at all -- I didn’t make my company Fair Source to get free labor or contributions. I did it to ensure the continuity and longevity of my core product, to give back, and to open up new marketing and distribution channels. I’m sure others share my sentiment.

If somebody does attempt to extort free labor, that’s on them; it’s not the fault of Fair Source, or Open Source for that matter. In that case, they should reap what they sow.

I hope you can see the value in a company sharing their core product with no strings attached. The world doesn't have to be so black and white i.r.t. OSS.

[talldayo]

I think you're also looking at it from the wrong direction. Communities exist around software because they perceive collective ownership of the program. If you don't want contributions then that's fine, but you're certainly not attracting new audiences by showing current customers your source code. It's marketing, plain and simple. Spending money on marketing is fine, but don't expect developers to not call you out on the advertisement.

The positioning of "fair source" as a middle-ground between business and community is an industry-wide joke. Do it to assuage your paranoid customers or whatever, but don't convince yourself for a second that you're putting the community before yourself.

[ezekg]

> don't convince yourself for a second that you're putting the community before yourself.

In some ways, I'm putting the sustainability of my business above user freedom, yes, but in other ways I put user freedom above sustainability by making the source code available to read, use, modify, and redistribute for nearly any use case. There's nothing inherently "wrong" with this either. The space between open source and closed source can be a gradient; it doesn't have to be strictly black and white. Open Source is different, yes, but that doesn't mean that people can't benefit from my software being Fair Source while I build a sustainable business. I can value building a sustainable business and providing user freedom at the same time. That's the whole point of Fair Source -- both are possible.

I think you're looking at it from the wrong direction.