You get more than what you pay for!

Entchev reflexively repeats one of the most foolish canards ever hurled against collaborative knowledge building (open source, open data, open knowledge)

You get what you pay for.

Was there ever a putdown more easily falsifiable?

You pay nothing for PostGIS. Is the value to you nothing? You pay nothing for Wikipedia. Is the value to you nothing? You pay nothing for Open Street Map, is the value to you… nothing? Clearly, you, and everyone, gets more than what they pay for.

Now, there are many arguments to be made and beers to be drunk over whether what you get is enough for all possible purposes of all possible people. Some think that the trend in open knowledge is so strong that even that goal is within reach. Me, not so much.

But clearly, everyone has access to these resources, for free, and what they get in return is more than what they paid.