Which generation? Is that based on survey data about beliefs about intellectual property law in different age groups, or is it more of a hunch you have?

The funny part is that even if you could produce direct evidence for that, I guarantee that like most discussions about this sort of topic, the itty-bitty teensy-tiny fact that "wages have completely stagnated over the past 3 decades in the West and younger generations have less comparative wealth than ever before" somehow wouldn't enter the conversation for some reason. This isn't even debatable but somehow easily forgotten. Oh, and that's assuming it's a complaint about younger generations ruining things. Which it always, 100% of the time, is.

Like: Hmmmm, gee whiz, can't imagine why consumers who have been sold up the river into using nothing but ad-funded spyware freemium apps, funded with VC cash from Saudi Aramco but still losing $500,000,000 every second in the name of "growth", a generation who have less money than ever before with completely dead-end wages while cost of living continues to rise, might not want to pay for things. Surely the answer is that "They are entitled", because clearly they're all actually flush with cash, and just don't want to pay. There isn't any other possible other external factors involved, because "Society" isn't actually real, after all, and externalities don't actually exist. I'm a very smart computer programmer whose intellect should be taken seriously on these matters.

A hunch based on online discussions and sites like this one, dedicated to creating new business, but every time some posts a nice commercial tool, there are dozens of posts with copy-cats that do half of the work, but hey they are free beer.

This is a fascinatingly entitled attitude. So you think you deserve to be paid for doing the same as someone else, for a higher price, but worse?

Everyone deserves to be paid for the fruits of their labour.

Could you source or back up your claim that there are generational differences at work here? I don't really follow.

Survey of local coffee shops with laptops full of penguin and red devil logos, and common discussion threads every time someone shows nice commercial tools aimed at developers.

The guy in the original story has been using Autodesk for 30+ years and is currently on a "Free" license. I guess the generation which refuses to pay for other's work is Generation X? As a Gen Xer, I don't appreciate that generalization.

EDIT: Updated the comment about the amount of time he's been freeloading.

The comment you have been spraying all over this thread points out having commercial licenses, which are NOT free. Stop spreading BS

On re-reading it, I think it is less clear than when I originally read it. Regardless, it's a bit of hair-splitting because he's clearly been using the free license for at least a portion of that time.

I updated the comment.