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Comment by jasonshen | Hacker News Reader

Would you feel the same way about creating open source software that had been forked 1,000's of times and used without your knowledge? Are you interested in living in a world where everyone only does things if they feel they can directly capture the majority of the value created?

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There's a whole world of software that people are expected to pay for, one way or another. Some programmers choose to release their work for free. And some people use the paid software without paying. We call those people "pirates".

Are you interested in living in a world where nobody can make a living off of their creative work?

I am interested in living in a world where creative works were not motivated by money and influenced by the incentives that come with that.

We already live in that world because of corporations.

There's a difference between giving your neighbors eggs from the chicken you raise, and the local chain hotel including them in their breakfast buffet.

Even if the output is free, you might enjoy the community, the gratitude or other indirect rewards.

Most people do actually feel that way when Amazon forks their software and monetizes it. They respond by relicensing as SSPL but it's too late and everyone uses the Amazon fork. This happens regularly.

I don’t think it is majority of the value created, but it might have to be a significant portion of the value expended to make it worthwhile at all.

When those forkers are large corporations then it probably should make most people think twice.

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