[Ernie Smith at Tedium]

Ernie Smith points out the creator-economy platform Gumroad open sourced its platform at a surprising time:

"But if that’s all Gumroad was doing, I wouldn’t feel compelled to say anything. The reason I’m speaking up is because of this Wired story, released on the very same day Gumroad announced its “open source” license, which may have had the effect of minimizing the story’s viral impact.

[...] It’s not even the central point of the piece, but the fact is, if you’re supporting Gumroad—a tool that, notably, has survived as long as it did because of a high-profile crowdfunding campaign—you’re allowing its CEO the financial freedom to work in the Department of Veterans Affairs, at the behest of DOGE, for free."

Leave aside that Gumroad's "open sourcing" is nothing really of the sort (it's source-available until you start making real revenue). Its founder is part of the DOGE mess, having replaced most of his employees with AI, with plans to do the same thing at the VA.

When this is all over, let's not forget that he did that.

#Democracy

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