Well, many people will be surprised to hear that Akismet is now charging for accessing its anti-spam database. Lots of users will disagree with the way Akismet handled this too. Bundled with WordPress, all you had to do was create a free account to get your API key. This worked across multiple sites and was pretty seamless.
Now a charge (currently $50) is levied for businesses and affiliate sites. Furthermore the free accounts are throttled with traffic priority going to paid-up subscribers. This from their website:
Free account
If your site is for a business, or if it promotes a product or service, you should pick from one of our paid account options.
Hmm, create a free tool, get subscribers then levy a charge. Whatever way you look at this, it’s going to be big business for Akismet with hundreds of thousands of people ready to subscribe.
For clarification, nothing that you mentioned is actually new. Akismet has always had paid accounts and the free accounts were always intended for personal sites only. The updated design and text was done in part to help make this distinction clearer.
I have no real way of checking that info apart from a quick Google. A few sites mention that previously it was the case if your blog revenue exceeded $500/month then you needed a paid for subscription. I also understand that the man behind Akismet is Matt Mullenweg (the creator of WordPress).
If anyone deserves the money it’s him….