Timothy Appnel reports on the release of Six Apart's Movable Type (MT) 3.0 Developer Edition and the MT community's reaction to changes in terms and licensing cost.  He closes with this comment:

This outcry raises a bigger more important point which is the reason for my post. As a developer and one who makes a living writing code, this reaction to Six Apart's new licensing is really disheartening and on a certain level frustrating to see. I am a firm believer and backer of open source. I've personally released quite a bit of open source code myself and will continue to do so. However this apparent expectation of the vocal part of community that it is their right to have all great works of software at no cost is bothersome. If users don't have the funds or won't pay on principle for my time, effort or talent – how do I eat?

While I was thinking about the question, I couldn't help but notice how similar the situation is with carnal relations.  Six Apart and other open source companies have opened their legs in return for love.  And now they risk losing the love if they start playing hard to get.  No easy solutions there.

Maybe Doctor Ruth can help.

Update:

Dave's long rant on the subject reminded me of the 60's free sex meme.  I think that's what we have here except this destructive meme is not likely to go away any time soon.  What a trip.

Update 2:

Perspective from the other side, the shocked lover who now feels betrayed, is also interesting and understandable.  This comment from teledyn posted to James Robertson's blog is a good example:

What gets me is the breach of trust, their about-face that leaves me stranded with no warning. When you invest your time creating content for a publishing system, you don't expect to have your priviledges to proceed with that software held for ransom.

In my faith in their company, I have recommended and deployed their free software over about a dozen sites…

[…]

It's not the money per-se, it's that about face that has frightened me away; if they'd turn against their core community for a buck now when the company is in the pink, they'll do it again later when the chips are down.

Dependence on SixApart is now a risk and I'm also concerned that, having squandered all the community good-will they'd only valued at $0.25, the future doesn't look so rosy for TypePad. Two days ago a colleague asked me if he should host his company site on TypePad or host it in-house, and I recommended TypePad, "They'll be around for long long time" I assured him.

I sent him a message today, reversing my assessment.

As I have written before, I don't like Bush and I don't think he makes a good president.  But I feel this way, not because I think he is stupid or a bad person, but because I think he is too obsessed with certain issues, one of them being Iraq.  He often say stupid things by mistake but sounding stupid doesn't mean he is stupid.  How can he be stupid yet smart enough to fool hundreds of millions of Americans about WMD in Iraq?

Stupefying Bush is not that different from dehumanizing our enemies.  He talks stupid so he must be an idiot.  Since he is an idiot, everything he say or does is stupid.  So on and so forth.  IMHO, there is nothing wrong with being stupid (remember Forest Gump?) as long as the stupid person's mistakes does not jeopardize rest of us.

Bush is such a position so whether he is stupid or not matters.  I don't think Bush is stupid.  I also don't think he is bad or corrupted.  But he is obsessed, unbalanced, and careless.  Not exactly what I am looking for in my president.

He is a man who seems to be drowning in his ideals and obsessions, a man whose unbalanced views, priorities and careless waving of the national security flag have trickled down the hierarchy of the US government and armed forces, creating pockets of atmosphere that disregards civil and human rights.

If the President of United States openly expresses anger toward specific races or nationalities, how long do you think it will take for the 'attitutde' to reach the INS employees at US border or soldiers in Iraq?  IMHO, it takes just hours to mere days.  With such winds of bias blowing constantly over 4 years, how many can escape from being influenced by the President desires and biases?  Not very many, I think.

Usually Tim Bray makes a lot of sense, but his recent post Torture didn't make much sense to me.  This is what he wrote about those soldiers at Abu Ghraib who are being charged:

This recent New York Times piece got me mad enough to provoke this essay. It’s a lengthy cri de coeur about those poor soldiers on the scene at Abu Ghraib, understaffed, undertrained, overworked. Excuse me? They’re torturers! They’re sick out-of-control sadistic animals. Can we have a sense of proportion here?

Apparently, he believes in the saying you are what you do.  In contrast, I am more partial toward you are a battleground of good and evil and everyone is capable of committing inhumane acts under the right conditions.

We know that inhumane acts can be brought about in many ways, most notorious being brainwashing.  To brainwash a person, one must have control over the victim's surrounding through isolation or immersion.  Isn't a prison an ideal environment for brainwashing whether the victim is a prisoner or a guard?  Can one brainwash oneself?  Definitely.  If your peers are brainwashed, what's you chance of being infected?

Even if you have the iron will, a rare property in my opinion, you won't last long under interrogation because interrogation is an art of not only pain but an art of brainwashing.  To break you, they will first break your perception of the world, twisting it as if opening a jar, aligning it into a position that will give, turning allies into enemies and friends into betrayers.  Guess who those soldiers were interacting with on daily basis?  That's right, professional brainwashers.

I am not saying they are all angels corrupted by evil interrogators.  What I am saying is that they are not too different from you and I.  The problem is not just them, but all of us.

You know what you did, but you know not what you do.