this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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Technology
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They got free testing for the promise of releasing the source, then failed to fulfill that promise, so... yeah, they do owe those people something.
Case and point? If they're not being compensated, they have no obligations to anyone. "Free testing" isn't compensation unless they plan to monetize it later using improvements from that testing.
Oh, legally they have no obligations unless written so in a binding contract. Ever seen a failed Kickstarter or a cancelled Patreon? No obligations, even if they get compensated in USD. Plenty of those out there.
Morally, the people giving that free testing and community building are still owed what they were promised, no less no more.
Entitlement to not being lied to or scammed? Ok.
Okay, but there’s a line here somewhere. Pushing for new features and complaining in the issue tracker that a bug hasn’t been fixed soon enough is absolutely entitlement. Expecting someone to follow through on their word and release the source code is another thing entirely. Especially if they make the decision to stop working on it.
Go check out this EoL statement from the developer of Nomie. He open-sourced the code without even being asked too.