There's no such thing as a free API if you're looking to build a business

[mandy]

Amazon and Google have recently shattered a common misconception: that free APIs are a commons of goodies to be built on top of for fun and profit, like open source software. If you think that, then here are six things you need to know about free APIs:

  1. Free APIs are not a god-given right. Businesses offer them for their own self-interested reasons. If you build on top of the API but aren't delivering the value for the business that provides the API, your use of the API will probably go away...

full article: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/0...for_a.html