I have a (very old) Roku that I quite like. Oh well. I'm glad I didn't spend the money to upgrade to a newer one.

If your company becomes that valuable, then yes... you should be forced to either share your wealth with your employees and other shareholders, or else give it up to the government if you are unwilling to do that.

I don't know about you, but the prospect of being worth $100M would be more than enough to motivate me to do all of the large things you just mentioned in your comment.

This is why there needs to be a 98% wealth tax on assets over $100M and 99.9% on assets over $250M. No individual human needs more than $100M in wealth.

Of course, to be fair to the poor oligarchs, we can index the thresholds to inflation.

(Just like that The Exploited song.)

I thought the BSA's goal was to end software piracy. Mandatory use of open source will certainly achieve that goal!

Similar experience. Founded and ran a software company in Canada. Sold it to a US company and within six months, it had turned to shit. I was OK because I had my retirement nest egg, but it wasn't great for our customers (many of whom became former customers within a year of the acquisition.)

If the product was sold with a perpetual license, then this is simply breach of contract and I foresee a class-action lawsuit.

Reminds me of The Feeling of Power by Isaac Asimov.

It's the classic enshittification cycle, also beloved by drug-dealers.

1. Get users hooked on free or cheap service.

2. Once they're hooked, jack up the price.

*whoosh*

Oh look at that... a new company has been registered. The "Bin Laden Totally Peaceful Nuclear Energy Company". They just need to pay off Trump and then they can participate in the Totally Peaceful Nuclear Energy program.

"woke" has lost all meaning nowadays. The original meaning was "to be aware of societal inequities", but the hijacking from the right has turned it into a slur that basically means "anything I don't like or am afraid of."

The analogy is not quite right. Meta are not analogous to drug dealers. They are analogous to drug designers who tweak the formula to make it as addictive as possible, ignoring any harms.

And yes, a cause is human weakness, but the cause is the deliberate, widespread exploitation of that weakness in ways that are very harmful to both individuals and to society.

I want to see Meta destroyed.

US-based IT companies are a danger to everyone outside the USA.

Graag gedaan! :) (Ik ben Canadees, maar ik leer Nederlands al twee jaar.)