Why I have trouble trusting FSF

Posted Aug 13, 2011 4:59 UTC (Sat) by dberlin (subscriber, #24694)
In reply to: Why I have trouble trusting FSF by davide.del.vento
Parent article: Desktop Summit: Copyright assignments

(Note: As anyone can tell you, I am not an AGPL fan, but in this case, the poster above you is correct).

You want section 13, where it clearly states:
"Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, , if you *modify* the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network ..."

(emphasis mine).

Nowhere else will you find anything related to releasing source due to network interaction.
It is only triggered if you modify the program first.

Why I have trouble trusting FSF

Posted Aug 15, 2011 15:29 UTC (Mon) by davide.del.vento (guest, #59196) [Link] (2 responses)

From what you say, it sounds like you do like GPL, but don't like AGPL because of this "modification" issue.

If you *modify* a GPL program (not Affero, any version), you must offer all its users the source code of your modifications, so it's exactly the same on these grounds. How can you like GPL and dislike AGPL?

What *is* different is who is considered "user":
- For GPL, user means somebody who received the program (even in a binary) and is running it on a machine where this user has some kind of control
- For AGPL, user means anybody who is "using" the program in whatever mean (e.g. as a webservice), even if the person hasn't "received" anything.

Thus, on the matter of "who the user is" you can like one and dislike the other, but that's not what you wrote (it's actually what I did wrote in my original comment that has been FUDed)

Why I have trouble trusting FSF

Posted Aug 22, 2011 11:32 UTC (Mon) by frabcus (guest, #25169) [Link] (1 responses)

That's a really nice way of making it clear, thank you.

I suspect that people who like the GPL but not the AGPL don't develop web applications. It makes no sense to license a web application under the GPL, as it is in that circumstance no longer a copyleft license.

An open source web application should either be licensed with BSD or with AGPL.

Why I have trouble trusting FSF

Posted Aug 22, 2011 11:46 UTC (Mon) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

it depends on how much you worry about the cloud subscription model.

if that's a huge worry for you, then the GPL doesn't help you much, but if you think that the app is far more likely to be run on people's servers, then the GPL is just as good for a web app as it is for any other app.