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FFmpeg to Google: Fund us or stop sending bugs

(thenewstack.io)
1125 points CrankyBear | 2 comments | 11 Nov 25 18:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.412s | source
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ironman1478 ◴[11 Nov 25 20:00 UTC] No.45892049[source]▶
Never work for free. It's a complete market distortion and leads to bad actors taking advantage of you and your work.
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palata ◴[11 Nov 25 21:46 UTC] No.45893312[source]▶
Sometimes it's hard: for many kinds of projects, I don't think anyone would use them if they were not open source (or at least source-available). Just like I wouldn't use a proprietary password manager, and I wouldn't use WhatsApp if I had a choice. Rather I use Signal because it's open source.

How to get people to use your app if it's not open source, and therefore not free?

For some projects, it feels better to have some people use it even if you did it for free than to just not do it at all (or do it and keep it in a drawer), right?

I am wondering, I haven't found a solution. Until now I've been open sourcing stuff, and overall I think it has maybe brought more frustration, but on the other hand maybe it has some value as my "portfolio" (though that's not clear).

replies(1): >>45893550 #
1. tatjam ◴[11 Nov 25 22:07 UTC] No.45893550[source]▶
You can just use the GPL, then it's free, but your labour cannot be so easily profited from by big corps
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2. palata ◴[11 Nov 25 22:33 UTC] No.45893815[source]▶
But it can be profited for not-so-big corps, so I'm still working for free.

Also I have never received requests from TooBigTech, but I've received a lot of requests from small companies/startups. Sometimes it went as far as asking for a permissive licence, because they did not want my copyleft licence. Never offered to pay for anything though.