I think the whole subject of paying for software is subjective no matter you throw it. But Imho, free and open source software are basically gifts and donating to the developer is mere intrinsic value for software. It isn't required to donate but mutually supports both parties, Further reading: The Gift: Creativity and the Artist There is a reason why FLTK development is slow... For instance a while back GnuPG financial assets relyed on one man who went broke [0] and was helped by the community. [1] In conclusion, help projects that actually need it instead of those that don't (e.g gnome) [0] archive.is/IMKA4 [1] archive.is/NH9oTx I'd like to point out just for the sake of making OP less retarded that there have been several studies that show that pirates actually spend more money. They simply spend on something they like rather than on everything that comes at them. The only reason "piracy" is illegal is, well it's two reasons actually: 1. Software developers attempt to force you to buy everything to find a gem. That or use rental services like gamefly or netflix. 2. When software developers make a bad game they will excuse it simply because it can't possibly be the game's shitty content for the lack of sales. It must be those fucking pirates! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Studies that show that pirates spend more money. https://archive.is/PnNI0 techdirt - aussie-study-infringers-spend-more-content-than-non-infringers https://archive.is/rqngc techdirt - dear-riaa-pirates-buy-more-full-stop-deal-with-it https://archive.is/2tqwW techdirt - another-day-another-study-that-says-pirates-are-best-customers-this-time-hadopi https://archive.is/byEyP cnet.au - australians-still-pirating-but-most-would-ignore-three-strikes-warnings/ https://archive.is/JOHnm torrentfreak - 0-more-on-content-than-honest-consumers-130510/ https://archive.is/bZRqO eteknix - /biggest-file-sharing-pirates-actually-spend-more-money-on-content-than-normal-people/ https://my.mixtape.moe/pyoblq.pdf http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/telecoms-research/online-copyright/deep-dive.pdf