this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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Up until very recently it seemed perfectly reasonable to fund this sort of thing with taxes, because it benefits everyone even if they're not directly using the database. An open source developer probably isn't going to pay to look up vulnerabilities in the open source dependencies they use, so the database being free makes software more secure on average.
What is wrong with having free public services? If someone is abusing it, block them, or charge fees like a library.
Sure, though that's part of the problem that the States is whining about. US taxes paid for the service, which lots of other nations/foreign companies used.
Things like Libraries require taxes to operate. You'd likely be annoyed if you were struggling, and then found out your gov was using your taxes to pay for a bunch of foreign countries to have libraries. And then you find out that those foreigners are able to use those libraries to make good money, which they don't use to support their libraries, cause the States is already covering it. So you're paying taxes, and struggling to do so, so that EU companies can reap profits and live comfy.
And yes, charge a fee. That's basically what I've said, no? That there's a value add, and that there are 'professionals'/companies using it who aren't paying for that value add. So something like a fee for frequent pulls against the vuln feeds, to replace whatever funding the US gov was giving, would make sense to me. though I suppose this has now been kicked down the road till next year.
The US specifically does spend tax money on foreign aid (or at least they used to). I have no problem with that. If you're struggling to get by, then you should be paying effectively no taxes. If that's not the case, then we should be fixing that, not cutting funding to things that make the world better.
As for the fee suggestion, a library does not charge for entry or for every book. There is a "free tier" that everyone can use as long as you return the books on time. You only charge the people making too many requests to make sure the service stays available to everyone.