I'm looking for this information all around. I'm wondering is Gunk/Gaia (parts of Firefox OS) open source, will I be able to modify it on my Firefox OS phone? Or did they sell out to carriers?

It's called underwriting - when stock goes public, it usually has one or more major banks as underwriters which are required to keep stock at certain price (not neceserilly a IPO price, limit can be lower). Company can go public without it, but most big IPOs have that option.
It's a system designed to avoid "flops" and for more realistic IPO prices. If underwriter values stock to high they have to spend money buying that stock.
Usually there's time and/or a value limit (so we'll prop up price fo x days, or we'll spend Y$ to keep it above Z$)

... and buing it completelly legally for your kid is absolutelly alright. Welcome to America! Where only thing standing between you and realiable rifle is 7 day waiting period. At the same time God forbid you fail at making science expiriment - even if you're 15 year old girl - you'll be charged as an adult terrorist! Thank God I'm not living there

For me the only real problem with GPL is freedom to copy and redistribute.
Only certain companies that do trully properietary stuff would mind open sourcing their software for end clients, there's no downside for them with that.
The serious problem for small companies is that releasing software under GPL means you'll only get one client, or several ones. Then one of them will publish software on github and/or sourceforge, and that's it. That's the end of your revenue for software, there are other revenue sources of course, but I'm focusing on software here.

So there most obvious option - to simply build software - invest 10000$ in it, and sell to 1000 clients for $10, is out of window. Becouse first one, or 20th one will publish it for free, and that'll be last sell you make.
That leaves you two options:
- you are forced to work for large corporations - who'll buy your GPL work and use it internally with no intention to redistribute, so your code is as good as closed source.
- You publish shity code and charge for consulting/books/documentation. This is of course asshole option that most of "successful" GPL projects take. They make software so complicated, so hard to use, and so hard to modify, that you HAVE to pay for consulting and/or modifications becouse there's no fucking way you'll be able to modify it yourself. So again, might as well be closed source - at least closed source software used to have good documentation.

Either way becouse of GPL you definitelly cannot make a living by creating software unless you're asshole.
I'm not saying MIT/BSD is better in that regard, BUT, since it can be used in commercial software, you can publish your changes on less permisive licence(don't allow copyleft) but still publish source code, and contribute patches. Also since that software will be actually used in comercial settings there's higher chance that someone who is professional programmer will create fixes and/or introduce features.

And it took you so long to figure it out?

Wake up people. This is happening becouse we let them. You could've read sane reviews on net that pointed it out. And guess what - not buy a game!

I spent 200 PLN on Starcraft I when I was 16y old kid - it was almost 1/4th of my mothers salary. I mowned lawns 2 months for it.
But guess what - you could set up lan party and run that one copy on all 4 computers as long as CD was in one of drives - completely legally!
Me and my friends spent whole summer playing this thing day and night. Friend got hooked up on Diablo2 - played it for months on BN in Hardcore mode.
No Blizzard is selling 1/3th of Starcraft2 for 250PLN and I simply refuse to pay for it. A) It's fucking 1/3th of game! B) You cannot even set up lanparty without internet access. Diable III ? Don't get me started on this shit. Pure grinder, patches that destroy gameplay. Rampart inflation. Full of bugs.

why the fuck would ANYBODY buy this shit?
Yet you do. I don't. but YOU do. And this is becouse YOU that we get this shit. Becouse idiots like you that spend money on game before thinking, then come here to vent on how you spent $$$ and realized Blizzard only wants your money. Guess what You've already been screwed. Blizzard does not care.

Next time just don't buy something just becouse it says Blizzard on cover. Read reviews and refuse to buy anything that has microctransactions in it. And refuse to pay for anything that's single player with always online DRM. You'll make word better place.

Yes becouse it's not like damn crows or parots can talk and comunicate in English. It's not like Chimpanze can learn sign language. It's not like they can read books eaither. It's not like animals can use medicine. It's not like the can use tools! Most of animals have ability to learn too. So maybe common man is not a dumb animal. We're in fact very smart animals. But there's really nothing separating us from animals.

You're very wrong. Kickstarter does not mean donation. There have been lots and lots of articles on this recently (even here on kickstarter), you owe people things you've promised, if you promised them copy of the game when finished. you have to publish it and send them a copy. If you don't deliver you have to refund everybody, or they might sue you (happened in few cases already), so its not a donation and there are real consequences. If you don't complete game, and you don't have money for returns you might loose ownership of product that is almost ready. So it's definetely not a risk-free method.

Yeah, and promotion is as shity as their whole dev center. I thought $8 I'll register just in case I'l EVER have to release anything for W8. But it's not $8 it's $99 and after a MONTH (30-45 days!) the'll refund you 91$, how fucking hard is to set up a discount in shop made by microsoft? apparently it's impossible, you have to charge client then refund him. So no thanks

Not all wastes are equal. "Wate" in this case might be simply M&M that are somehow damaged (not perfectly shaped), and are thrown out becouse who would eat square M&M right?

I'm not talking about you specifically. But about 100s of whiners who complain every day how they are not appreciated for their work. How Boss does not respect them. How marketing people don't understand them.
Yet they are first to cash company for trying to make marketing people trully understand what coding is about.

At the same you complain that Marketing people look down on you. But your job is important right? You're better then janitor right? Hypocrisy. You want marketing people to respect you, but you don't respect them, or people that make your work comfrtable.

Well if people are good/stupid enough to fund someone's company then why not take advantage of that? Kickstarter have been designed as a way to gather donations. If companies abuse system - it's only becouse users actually let them. When whole series of project fail miserably people will adjust their expectations.

There is lots of people who agree with this stance. That's why in Poland for example right now there's a hige discussion on banning in-vitro impregnation based exactly on that inconsitency. Many believe since life is sacred since inception in-vitro should be banned. Only logical thing to do.

I should have said - jok I've first heard on BBT ;) I'm not giving away my geek badge, over my dead body :P

When I was reading this post I remembered a joke from Big Bang Theory, something along the lines of "I have perfect solution but It only works for square chickens in the vacum". If you are one of these "people in densely-populated well-wired urban areas in which they had data centers. " You usually also have awesome gaming rig, or at least playable one. 1% of population that could actually use you product, didn't really need it. Those who would like to use it - couldnt, and you're suprised you've failed?