Comment by pbasista

No. No restrictions should be put on downloads. The main point is that the distribution channels should always be free.

What should be gated and limited is the commercial use: reselling, relicensing, using for business, etc.

> the optional payment (I promise you nobody's gonna do that)

Such "promises" seem to be based on no facts. Moreover, they contradict my personal experience.

I would be very interested in using that business model. In fact, I have already used it with other types of services. I have paid for software that is open source, free to download and free to use. Multiple times. Simply because I like the software and I wanted to thank the authors for it in some tangible way.