Oh, sure, if you decided to get into a strong production of them, you would of course go out an buy a good and quite pricy developement suite, but you could start with nothing and work up. The ActiveX model is differnet. You buy the development tools. You purchase the certificate which gives you the right to distribute the ActiveX control. Given the high costs, you normally would NOT give away your ActiveX controls.
Profit is built in at every step for everyone.
Every one except Netizens. Same with Microsoft NT Servers. Everyone is asking for Front Page Extensions. They really require Microsoft NT Servers. Microsoft NT Servers cost lots and lots of money.