That's not a fair conclusion from the parent comment at all. Software developers _do_ have the right to prevent their work from being given away for free. Them _choosing_ to develop FOSS is them voluntarily waiving that right.
And most of the small authors think that copyright should not be longer then 5 years, the only one's against it are the big publishers, so as a small author you cannot choose if you want at least a bit money.
>If people worked long and hard on something, they deserve the right to prevent it from being given away for free.
So FreeSoftware/OSS people don't work hard?
I think Ricard Stallman made a really good presentation why today's copyright is unfair for small authors but really good for the "harry potter".