The package maintainer, as you said, handled this very gracefully.

Yeah, the author is likely in the wrong/gray (IANAL). But I can't help but be disappointed that posters below immediately jump to "Well, it should be free anyway!" "Why is he protecting his code?" "Here is an evil oppressor trying to keep something valuable to himself."

Here is a developer who tried to build a living using his own software, something many of us aspire to do. Why are we so quick to throw him under the bus? Is it because we instinctively always want to "defend the underdog"?