>There's also a problem with the purism put forth by some of the 'free as in freedom' enthusiasts, most notably Richard Stallman, who seem to gloss over the fact that coders have to make a living, too or who even frown upon making money with software altogether. Software eats the world but even RMS can't eat software.
Here you are saying "free as in freedom", while obviously referring to "free as in beer." Your earnings shouldn't be a function of then number of lawyers you employ (to make air-tight licenses.) That doesn't imply you are not allowed to make money if you have too few lawyers. It implies the opposite, actually.
You're right. The problem is though that it's not always that easy to distinguish between beer and freedom in this context. Depending on the software and the industry those two might be intrinsically connected.
Besides, you might need a large number of lawyers anyway, for example if a company decides to simply disregard your carefully crafted open source license.
Here you are saying "free as in freedom", while obviously referring to "free as in beer." Your earnings shouldn't be a function of then number of lawyers you employ (to make air-tight licenses.) That doesn't imply you are not allowed to make money if you have too few lawyers. It implies the opposite, actually.