Spot on, Trevor
I see multi-million-dollar corporate clients paying literally a few dollars a month to the Big 4 or what have you. Or nothing. Or 10k/year payable in advance. It all depends license terms and usage, which can change overnight. Every year I find myself rushing to implement another map API because the one we're using got greedy or merged with another, and even when given advance notice, nobody approves these petty changes until something breaks.
I'm generally a political conservative but I HATE HATE HATE that notion, advanced by many (neo-)conservative politicians, of "user fees" for small public services - parking meters, road tolls, pay-per-throw, vehicle stickers, little tax incentives/penalties, coffee shops that charge for wifi... it's obnoxious.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
