Nothing wrong with being a for-profit company, but they went from optional paid certificates to deleting old MOOCs and making new ones exclusive for those willing to pay, every day their monetization tactics get more aggressive.
And people are "entitled" to criticize them on the Internet.
Sheesh, people really over-dramatize Hacker News threads. We aren't a legislative chamber debating a bill. We're an assortment of techno-hipster liberals and wannabe-entrepreneur libertarians, commenting on (often trivial) current events over coffee on a Saturday morning. The moral outrage-over-the-outrage-over-the-outrage-over-the-outrage gets comical after the first couple recursions.
So it makes me sad and I am expressing my opinion on a public forum. I don't have enough money to subsidize MOOCs for the poor but if you come up with another useless idea I am sure you will let me know.
"Coursera is entitled to do X" is not meaningful criticism, though, when you are responding to a moral argument. It's like when people respond to "you are being an asshole" with "it's my right to." Well, sure, but you're still being an asshole.
I think they will change to monetize everything very soon. Right now is the transisition period where by you still able to seek for financial aid and get approved.
The spiritual message was that they were democratizing access to education. That dream has apparently died and this is the mourning process. Go back to your Ayn Rand book.
Expecting a service without giving anything in return is the definition of "greedy".