I regret my use of the word "freeload" because of all the baggage it drags with it. I think companies are perfectly legally and ethically fine paying $0 for something that explicitly comes at no cost. But it's also rare that I see a company think about how critical a piece of open source is to their business, and realize that paying in some way (if possible) can be a good way to mitigate business risk. I think most companies don't really consider that risk in the first place.
I completely agree with you. Having worked for a few very large companies, I can tell you that any thinking beyond the crisis of the hour is very rare indeed.
