agpl

Subject: Affero GPL Problems Tags: web, debian, software Date: <date -R Free software vs. software-as-a-service: Is the GPL too weak for the Web? http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/free_software_vs_software_service is another disappointing article on the Affero GPL that fails to notice that it is built on the fallacy that you can "enforce cooperation" (which you can't - true cooperation must be open and voluntary), that it isn't a usual free software licence (requires hosters to become distributors) and that FSF have inserted a copyleft-weakening clause into GPLv3 to allow combination with AGPLv3 works. This last one allows them to ignore many complaints about the Affero clause. You can see that in one of the article's AGPLv3 examples: "stet" is the FSF's "entirely preliminary, undocumented, unsupported"[] very buggy anti-accessibility AJAX application for public comments on online texts. stet is built on top of RT, which is GPL'd. Therefore, stet should be GPL, but exploits the new GPLv3 clause to be AGPLv3. []- from stet's README. http://code.softwarefreedom.org/projects/stet/browser/trunk/README If a web app has no working released version, is it really a web app yet or just a collection of code snippets? I've been researching some problems with the Affero GPL to see if they have wider implications for free software users and will publish them on my website. stet is currently number 4 on my list of irritating web apps for which I'll write good replacements in my near-zero free time. (The 3 ahead of it are osdir, surveymonkey and pipermail.) The big challenge with web apps is keeping the data portable. Even the Affero GPL doesn't make sure that we have access to the app along with the data (and no free software licence can). We need to persuade people of the need of keeping their data open, instead of making free software more difficult for web app users and hosters. The FSF needs to get back to promoting free software instead of preserving the legacy business models of manual publishers and web app hosters. Russell McOrmond posts on the Digital Copyright Canada mailing list: http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/6817 - see the last two paragraphs http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/6826 - a more in-depth discussion of problems with the AGPL "What the AGPL does is expand copyright law into dangerous areas." (referring to how the AGPL infringes on a user's private modification right) "This conflict simply lends credibility to opponents of the Free Software movement who claim that 'we' are just as guilty of expanding exclusive rights for our own narrow purposes as those proprietary companies 'we' sometimes allege moral superiority to." The Seduction of Social Sanctity, by Crosbie Fitch http://www.digitalproductions.co.uk/index.php?id=79