There is a lot of concern in this thread about open source projects needing funding and they're not wrong. There are a lot of projects that are underfunded--most of them, in fact.
However, it's not like the developers of and contributors to these projects naively go in thinking they're going to get paid anything. They graciously choose to make the fruits of their efforts freely available regardless of compensation. And, yes, there are companies making money off of that generosity.
My point is; nobody is in the wrong here. Both parties have entered into this agreement willingly.
Injecting ads like this is wrong because the developers are reneging on that agreement. It's as if the developers are saying, "You know what? I changed my mind and I want some money for this because companies are making money off of it now." What's worse is they aren't even charging the companies directly.
I'm all for a discussion around how to help generate funding for FOSS projects but have we not learned from Google, Facebook, and others how wrong a path advertising can be? At what point are the advertisers going to want demographic information and the module developers start requiring you provide that information at 'npm install'?
I totally agree about open source devs doing it voluntarily. But I disagree they have no right to stuff terminal full of ads. It is their code - they can do whatever. Ever change their mind and license from there and into the future. Just like npmjs.org is completely in their own rights can ban such projects from enjoying benefits of the package distribution platform.
In fact, if the project was important enough, and maintainer was stubborn enough, I am sure devs community using that code would rant, but end up using it anyway, with or without npmjs.org
However, it's not like the developers of and contributors to these projects naively go in thinking they're going to get paid anything. They graciously choose to make the fruits of their efforts freely available regardless of compensation. And, yes, there are companies making money off of that generosity.
My point is; nobody is in the wrong here. Both parties have entered into this agreement willingly.
Injecting ads like this is wrong because the developers are reneging on that agreement. It's as if the developers are saying, "You know what? I changed my mind and I want some money for this because companies are making money off of it now." What's worse is they aren't even charging the companies directly.
I'm all for a discussion around how to help generate funding for FOSS projects but have we not learned from Google, Facebook, and others how wrong a path advertising can be? At what point are the advertisers going to want demographic information and the module developers start requiring you provide that information at 'npm install'?