Comment by porridgeraisin
Comment by porridgeraisin 4 days ago
What stops someone else from just offering a download of release builds for free?
I understand FOSS can be financed when the customer is a business, but when it's a user?
Comment by porridgeraisin 4 days ago
What stops someone else from just offering a download of release builds for free?
I understand FOSS can be financed when the customer is a business, but when it's a user?
Nothing, but it doesn’t work for closed source software either.
Pirating a FOSS app would probably have less of a psychological barrier, but I think it would be more frowned upon instead. (I won’t judge you if you pirate Photoshop, but pirating Inkscape? Shame on you!) We’ll have to see how it plays out though.
Nothing, just like nobody stops people from releasing modified builds now in fact people do (waterfox, ...). Trademark law provides a moat, as do fees to get into proprietary app stores.