Sure, their choice to give it away may not have gone as they hoped, I’m just pushing back against the idea that making copies of a thing the creator explicitly gave permission to copy is “stealing”. The core of open source is that making and distributing modified or unmodified copies is good. Calling it stealing undermines the very important social work we can do with open source.
> The core of open source is that making and distributing modified or unmodified copies is good.
The core is not that it is "good", only that it is allowed (i.e. we won't sue you if you do).