Comment on I designed a cardboard cutter that turns boxes into free cat scratchers
Captainvaqina@sh.itjust.works 2 days agoIt’s $3 which is well worth the time saved by not having to design it from scratch.
Someone had to use their skills to create it, do you think they should work for free?
kellenoffdagrid@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
I don’t disagree, never said people should work for free. I recognize there’s a disjoint in believing good information should be free[ly accessible] and also that people deserve compensation for work, though. It’s just one of those contradictions I haven’t solved as far as my own beliefs.
More than anything I was complaining, like I said it’s a totally valid business choice, I’m just a penny-pincher lol.
frezik@midwest.social 1 day ago
I think there’s a way to reconcile it, but it requires people to behave themselves. It can still be under a CC license, but also behind a pay link for the author. Yes, we could get it from somewhere for free, but that takes more effort and we’re not supporting the original creator.
This is basically mutual aid applied to non-physical goods. We know you still need to make a living in capitalism, and we’ll agree to exchange useful things for money under that system until we have a better one.
There’s also an argument similar to the one for streaming services (the one the services themselves have forgotten in the last few years). Yes, we can pirate it, but that takes effort, the sites involved have all sorts of shady advertisements, and we can get all we want and more for ten bucks a month.