Sorry, I wasn't clear. Obviously the only reason it would be illegal would be if it were done to restrain competition or trade, and done by an entity with a monopoly.
Giving things away for below marginal cost can also run afoul of WTO anti-dumping laws. I am also curious why there are never any dumping complaints made against software companies whereas they are quite common in adjacent markets like RAM chips.
Well, what is the marginal cost of software distribution?
Just bandwidth cost. Literally a fraction of a cent.
There are a lot of costs to software distribution, but the vast majority are sunk costs, not marginal. By contrast manufacturing has significant marginal costs.
This economic fact may be relevant to any decent analysis.
Giving things away for below marginal cost can also run afoul of WTO anti-dumping laws. I am also curious why there are never any dumping complaints made against software companies whereas they are quite common in adjacent markets like RAM chips.