#agpl

@fsf Yes, come to the #GNU40 event at the Free Software Foundation in Boston, MA this Sunday for a gratis introduction to what Music Blocks is all about. We're excited to be there! #FreeSoftware #AGPL #MusicBlocks

Just part of the #history that spawned social processes bringing us to where we are today...

FYI, yesterday was the 40th Anniversary, if you will ;)

https://www.gnu.org/gnu/initial-announcement.html

#tallship #heritage #FOSS #GNU #FSF #GPL #AGPL #licensing #Open_Source #dev #software

⛵

.

A graphical client for https://bgammon.org is now available! Try it out (no download required) and let me know what you think. https://bgammon.org is a completely free and open source online backgammon service.

#foss #opensource #multiplayer #backgammon #gpl #agpl #announcement #release

@yogthos "unintentionally" as in: the #copyleft of the #GPL does not have teeth when it’s just used on a server, and too few people chose the #AGPL to preserve copyleft.

See what Google has to say about it: https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/agpl-policy

AGPL has been available since 2002: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License

#gnu

In the Q&A, someone asks Hinton about the ethical dilemmas of #LLM training on copywritten data, to which he responds that he's only done research on the existential risk of AI and others understand the ethical arguments surrounding #labor issues better than him, so he has no comment.

Next someone asks his opinion on #FOSS LLMs to which he responds:
"If these things are going to be dangerous it might actually be better for just a few big companies — I don't work for #Google anymore so I'm not saying this on their behalf — but it might work out for a few big companies, preferably in several countries, to develop this stuff along with ways of keeping it under control. As soon as you #OpenSource anything, people will start doing all sorts of crazy things with it; it will be a really quick way to learn how far things can go wrong"

Um, wasn't this figured out back in 2007? It's called #AGPL, the AI-safe #gnu license that demands that anyone who interacts with the programs built from modified source code have readily-available access to that very source code.

Call me crazy, but I'm much more compfortable with software that everyone can audit than trusting a few corporations who are wreaking havoc on the planet as we speak.

#gpl #ai

#Copyleft
#Klausel in #urheberrechtlich​en #Nutzungslizenz​en, die #Lizenznehmer verpflichtet, die #Bearbeitung (#Erweiterung, #Veränderung) unter die #Lizenz des #ursprünglich​en #Werk​s zu stellen.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

Application Service Provider #ASP #Schlupfloch / #Loophole: Wenn die #Benutzung #GPL #lizensiert​er #Software ohne #Weitergabe einen #proprietär​en #closed #Source #Betrieb ermöglicht. #AGPL als #Fix.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License

#FOSDEM John #Sullivan https://yt.oelrichsgarcia.de/watch?v=XGa_TlRdtG8

And that’s why we’re sticking to #AGPL with pretty much everything we’re working on over at @medienhaus:
https://chaos.social/@isotopp/110870276336062284

Désolé, j'ai forké https://linuxfr.org/news/desole-j-ai-forke #logiciel_libre #licence #sqlpage #Rust #agpl #sql

@bahmanm @galdor #AGPL is often used together with CLA:s to ensure the owner of the code does not have to comply with the #AGPL terms, only everyone else in the community.

This means that players in the community are not on equal terms.

I think #BSLLicense is more honest in this regard. It doesn’t hide the motives by pointing to an OSI approved license and as such leaves a more level playing field after the change date.

@galdor Let’s not conflate the #SSPL license that Elastic switched to with the #BSLLicense.

The SSPL is an #AGPL license modified to prohibit competition for eternity.

The BSL is a license that turns into a #GPL2 compatible license within at most 4 years and which the creators, @mariadb, created to ensure their proprietary extensions would be as close to OSS as possible and guaranteed to eventually become full OSS.

Likewise, @getsentry defaults to non-BSL: https://open.sentry.io/licensing/

Another day, another project that uses the #BSLLicense, but which hasn’t understood the requirements it’s setting (change date being too far away in the future and change license being #AGPL, which is not #GPL2 compatible)

Apart from that, #SpacetimeDB looks like a cool project 👏

https://github.com/clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB/issues/215

@galdor And let's not forget switching to #AGPL v3 will not only ensure a #copyleft license for the community but will also forces the competitors/distributors (read #Amazon) do the same.

#LinkWarden is a fully self-hostable, open-source collaborative bookmark manager to collect, organize and archive webpages.

https://linkwarden.app

@linkwarden is #AGPL-licensed

Changement de licence pour mold en version 2.0 https://linuxfr.org/news/changement-de-licence-pour-mold-en-version-2-0 #lignedecommande #mold-linker #agpl #mit

#Plane, an #AGPL-licensed self-hostable alternative to Atlassian #Jira.

https://plane.so

I was just complaining about DocuSign and now tada an Open Source document signing! #FreeSoftware is so amazing. https://github.com/docusealco/docuseal #AGPL GNU Affero General Public License v3.0

::: FreeTube | Free as in Freedom YouTube app :youtube:

FreeTube features:

* YouTube content WITHOUT GOOGLE hovering in background
* No ads
* A simple UI - lighter than the YT website
* Subscribe channels WITHOUT a GOOGLE account
* Import / export those FreeTube subscriptions

=> https://snapcraft.io/freetube-snap

#FreeTube #YouTube #deleteGoogle #apps #OpenSource #AGPL #freedom #Linux #Snap #Flatpak #AppImage

Maybe useful for new-comers: you can read #twitter accounts without logging-in or waiting for the heavyweight website to load.
#nitter
«Nitter is a #free and #opensource alternative Twitter #frontend focused on #privacy and #performance. The source is available on GitHub at https://github.com/zedeus/nitter (...) In the future a simple account system will be added that lets you follow Twitter users, allowing you to have a clean chronological timeline without needing a Twitter account.»
#AGPL #freesoftware

If the FSF were more active / still relevant, and they were making a successor to the #AGPLv3 to cover new additional threats to #FreeSoftware and the four freedoms, such as LLMs slurping up #copyleft code without releasing the result under copyleft, what new clauses should be in the new license? If you were writing a new version of the #AGPL, what threats would you guard against, using what language?

If the FSF can't get their act together, is there any org that could produce such a license?

Here we go folks!

How Minix got to be the most prolific desktop operating system in the world...

lukesmith.xyz/articles/why-i-u…

Now, there's another point to be made here, without specifically naming any projects currently abusing user contributions. Let's call this hypothetical project "hammer&anvil", itself a fork of a popular software project - but claims it's all about being free and transparent, wanting to distinguish itself from the project it's forked from by adopting GPL3 instead of a permissive license.

Sure, the project's BDFL (let's call her "Strawberry Daiquiri"), says one day, "were forming a fork of project X because they've formed a company and I'm afraid what they are going to do with X because it's under a permissive license. This girl will be brutally transparent and completely run by the community under the philosophy of anarchy, but we're going to call it a sociocracy so you don't know that it's really just me making a proprietary product for my own ambitions".

Well, Miss Daquiri decides to capture by capitalizing upon the sentiment that folks have for Copyleft - it's supposed to protect free software, right?

Well, this fork (hammer& anvil) is a hosted solution - meaning SaaS, meaning, it runs elsewhere (other than in your computer) in the cloud as a publicly accessible service. Hmmmm.

That means that the most appropriate Copyleft license is likely the AGPL, and not the GPL as one would expect fur a desktop or other local program that you actually download and install in your laptop or server.

The GPL requires that when you distribute (give away or sell) your program, either by letting someone download or handing it to them on a USB stick, Etc., You must also make available ALL of the source code, including any changes you've made to the program.

But if you run a modified GPL program as a service in the cloud you don't have to provide ANY off the changes you've made to the code.

Hmmm.

With AGPL you do have to supply your users with ANY code modifications you've made to the running service to which they have accounts...

So let's just say that you fork Mastodon, and call it Glitch-Soc, modify it, and run it in the cloud for people to create accounts on and use (for free or for monthly subscription fees - it doesn't matter). ANY and ALL changes to the code base that you make MUST be made available anytime a user asks for the source code, because it's an #AGPL licensed product.

And in reality, such is actually the case with this exceedingly popular and capable #fork. It's a fine product in it's own right.

But had you changed the license to all contributions moving forward to #GPL, you wouldn't have to provide any modifications you made (unless you give or sell the software product itself on say, a USB stick or via download).

Why? Because you're just allowing them to access and use your service, your not actually giving them the program to use for themselves elsewhere - so any modifications you made since forking under a different license (GPL instead of AGPL) isn't something you have to show them.

You've essentially created a #proprietary product (if you're so nefarious as to hide your code changes by butt disclosing them), the only code of which you must supply being that which existed under the AGPL before you forked it.

Both #Copyleft and permissive open source #licenses like #BSD and #MIT can be a good thing, or they can be abused beyond the intentions of the #FOSS inclined project contributors. Just make sure that you understand what can and cannot be changed where your intended purpose for the #distribution and #availability of source code is concerned....

There are BIG differences between the ramifications of each #license and how they can affect transparency and distribution of your free gifts to the world.

In our hypothetical scenario with hammer&anvil, the #BDFL, #Strawberry Daiquiri, has decided that she's going to launch a hosted service, and she's going to include things that you don't see and can't be aware of behind the scenes which, if disclosed, you would have nothing to do with - but you'll never know what kinds of scary things she's done with the product that only resembles the original on the surface, because Miss Daquiri will never have to show you the code she has added behind the scenes.

"Beautiful Victor, Beautiful."
-The Monster, speaking to his creator in the film, 'Frankenstein, The True Story'.

#tallship #licensing

⛵

.

Nice #webtool for lightweight browsing: #LibreMDb
https://libremdb.iket.me/find
«A #free & #opensource #IMDb #frontend, inspired by projects like #teddit, #nitter, and many others.
No ads or tracking (browse without being tracked or bombarded by annoying ads).
Modern interface (with curated colors supporting both dark and light themes).
Responsive design (small mobile or big computer screen, fully responsive).»
#Code:
https://codeberg.org/zyachel/libremdb
https://github.com/zyachel/libremdb
#GNU #AGPL

This is a demo of slcl, my own AGPLv3-licensed cloud software written in C99 + POSIX, showing how to:

- Create a user
- Create directories
- Upload, preview and share files with others
- Remove files and/or directories

slcl is extremely lightweight on the server and even runs its own HTTP/1.1 implementation.

slcl uses no JavaScript at all. Only HTTP/1.1, HTML5 and CSS.

Get slcl from:
https://gitea.privatedns.org/xavi92/slcl

#foss #freesoftware #cloud #opensource #agpl #slcl #dataprivacy

The birth of #DjudgePortal for #LatherGames and #AustereAugust

Developed at https://gitlab.com/djudges/djudgeportal under the #OpenSource #AGPL license using #Python, #Flask, #SQLAlchemy.

Contributions are not only welcome, but necessary.

If you ever wanted to join a dev project to help the #wetshaving community, this is your chance. Newbies welcome, all you need is the will to read tutorials.

@silentashes
thanks for sharing your feedback!
I think we are on the same page. While our instance is in our bootstrapping phase, we chose discord for backend communication because some of us were familiar with setting up a community server and it was easy to manage things there while we figured out what would be our within-instance communication strategy after our processes (governance, rules, CoC) were fairly established.

We currently self-host our decision making system #loomio (https://www.loomio.com/) which is #FLOSS under #AGPL license (https://github.com/loomio/loomio)

We have been discussing how to avoid having to use too many platforms (and having to create different accounts for each) to cooperatively govern the instance because those can become bottlenecks for instance-level participation in important discussions. We are discussing a way to self-host our own forum #lemmy (relevant thread: https://neuromatch.social/@manisha/110641946898243726) but we are volunteers and so our progress has been according to our limited bandwidths (we are trying to get funding though, so pointers to funding sources would be appreciated -- other than the crowd-sourcing ones like OpenCollective, Patreon, etc, we are aware that several #MastoAdmin use that). And how fast we make progress also depends on how much support we can get from other volunteers from our #neuromatchstodon instance to help out with this stuff.

We are slowly but surely working towards using open-source tools and self-hosting and making it easier for instance members to participate in discussions (which is why we let them know to reply to our OP here if they don't want to go to discord).

We currently run a fork of #glitch which allows local-only posts. I had tested that but there was a tiny bug there (e.g. https://neuromatch.social/@manisha/109753892418948128) that I haven't had the time to look into. But that's another option worth considering for instance-only discussions with caveats like this -> replies to local-only posts can become public and then the thread may seem weird for those who can't see the OP.

Given the cooperative structure that we are establishing, we will likely not move to #DiscourseSoftware if we can't have all of our instance member switch there easily (but I don't know the details fully so this is just going off of what you mentioned)

Thank you for pointing us to #Mobilizon. Have you tried it or know someone who has? I'd love to hear how the experience has been there, especially if it uses #ActivityPub

sorry for this #LongPost :)

cc @socialwg

Another day and another push for having #OpenSource startups adopt the BSL-license rather than a bespoke hybrid proprietary setup or an orphaning-prone AGPL / SSPL licensed setup: https://github.com/SigNoz/signoz/discussions/3021

#OpenTelemetry #SigNoz #OpenSourceStartup #BSLLicense #AGPL #SSPL #FOSS

All the talk about #redhat attempting to restrict the freedom of #RHEL users that I've seen is focusing on how #IBM just barely stays out of violation of the GPL.

But, what I don't see is talk of the many non-GPL packages in RHEL with "permissive" (I'd say, "vulnerable") licenses (BSD, MIT and their ilk). #IBM need not make their source available, even to those that they themselves distribute binaries. They can still put the screws harder to the FOSS community.

#GPL (and #AGPL) for life, yo.

Pour un générateur de site statique, est-ce mieux #GPL ou #AGPL? 🤔

(svp pas de troll anti-gpl)

#OpenResume, self-hostable, #privacy-focused, #AGPL-licensed parser and builder for #Resume's.

https://www.open-resume.com

https://github.com/xitanggg/open-resume

🚨 Discord-using #FOSS project alert!

No excuses anymore, ditch that #WalledGarden content black hole that #discord is.

Because.. #Revolt, your #AGPL-licensed alternative has arrived.

https://revolt.chat

https://github.com/revoltchat

And they are on the #Fediverse too. Hi there @revoltchat 👋

List of software under the #GNU #AGPL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_under_the_GNU_AGPL

#introduction

I fight for the users.

I love programming and thinking and talking about thinking. I have an education (BS, MS, PhD) focused on artificial intelligence and neuroscience.

I'm an advocate of the public academic pursuit of knowledge, the scientific process, peer review, and I see open source software and hardware as an essential part of the scientific process.

I see software user rights, including security and privacy, to be protected mainly by free open source software, specifically software with a copyleft license, i.e. GPL or Mozilla.

I see the democratizing effects of the Internet, including distributed journalism and social networking, to be largely the effect of the collaborative development of free and open source software.

I am interested in free and open source manufacturing, including open source 3D printers and CNC machines. I believe open source manufacturing will be important for distributed manufacturing, allowing local manufacturing and local labor.

I see worker-owned coops as the way to safely transition from a non-democratic authoritarian top-down power structure of a traditional corporation to a democratic work environment, where the workers own the company and elect the board of directors, transitioning to democracy in the workplace.

I believe that socialism is a regulatory response to capitalism.

I believe that laws, money, corporations, and government are social agreements, and I'm in favor of democratic social agreements.

I believe in the organized non-violent boycott as a way to control capitalists and change corrupt systems.

I am a pacifist. I am against violence. I am against citizens keeping guns in cities and towns with children. I am against war.

I try to eat plant-based / vegan foods to boycott the animal industry, to help with the climate crisis, to improve my health, to avoid animal cruelty, and to avoid the extinction of species of plants, animals and ecosystems.

I have been diagnosed with Retinitus Pigmentosa, which is a disease of progressive retinal degeneration. I am legally blind, although I have about 5-degrees of vision remaining in my fovea. I'm interested in researching and developing BCIs (Brain-Computer Interfaces), specifically BCIs that function as vision prostheses that may help with conditions like RP, or the more common degenerative retinal disease AMD (Age-related Macular Degeneration).

I enjoy playing computer games like Age of Empires and Rimworld. I used to program computer games when I was younger and would like to get back to it one day.

I love playing music, especially bass guitar. I've been listening to a lot of Rage Against the Machine and Enya recently.

I enjoy reading books, mostly non-fiction.

I enjoy studying religions. I've found a lot of value in Buddhism, and I meditate often daily.

Nina and I have recently had our first baby, a boy we named Tyoma.

I'm currently working at Apple on the Vision Pro headset team.

#users #fightforusers #userrights #programming #thinking #thinkingaboutthinking #ai #artificialintelligence #neuroscience #journalism #science #scientificprocess #peerreview #foss #fosh #flosh #floss #freeandopensource #freedomsoftware #libresoftware #copyleft #gpl #agpl #mozilla #license #ls #academia #privacy #security #democracy #internet #socialnetwork #distributed #cnc #3dprinting #locallabor #localmanufacturing #coop #workerowned #democracyatwork #regulation #laws #money #corporations #government #socialagreement #boycott #controlcapital #nonviolent #pacifist #antivolence #antigun #noguns #schoolshooting #antiwar #plantbased #vegan #climatecrisis #animalindustry #animalcruelty #extinction #animal #plant #ecosystem #environment #retinituspigmentosa #rp #agerelatedmaculardegeneration #amd #blind #lowvision #bci #games #computergames #ageofempires #rimworld #gamedev #music #bassguitar #rageagainstthemachine #enya #religion #reading #books #readingbooks #buddhism #baby #apple #visionpro

Must hear:

Why Won't My Company Let Me Use AGPL Software? (2020)

by Heather Meeker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9RUJV757sE

#OpenSource #Licensing #AGPL

The developer urge to use an ever-more-opinionated project setup (#AGPL license, #FossilSCM, non-github software forge, interesting programming language, etc.) vs. the desire to engage & include literally anybody else from the community

I think the maintainers of #MFM should change its license from #MIT to #AGPL. I will go look for whom associated with the project I could reach out to to tell them that. #Copyleft https://github.com/misskey-dev/mfm.js/blob/develop/LICENSE

#BigCapital

"Online accounting software, built to automate business financial processes. Control your business bookkeeping with automated accounting, to run intelligent reports for faster decision-making."

Another well-designed #FOSS product launched and developed under an #AGPL license. Nice!

https://bigcapital.ly

@strypey you boosted
https://mastodon.social/@tomat0/110436554609027254
on social coding's ideas.

Everything the OP says is accomplished by #AGPL + https://spi-inc.org without the social overheads their proposal has.

The most useful point was probably about the number of "me-too" projects that abound in #FOSS. The most irritating for me way back was #GNU Sather. Focusing on formats/protocols is useful, and the #4opens approach soounds better for that than FOSS.

So cool that #GitHub #Copilot provides maintainers of popular #OpenSource repositories free reign to illegally violate their colleagues’ #copyright and #license terms: https://docs.github.com/en/billing/managing-billing-for-github-copilot/about-billing-for-github-copilot#:~:text=maintainers%20of%20popular%20open%2Dsource%20repositories

Learn about and follow the class-action #lawsuit against GitHub, #Microsoft, and #OpenAI here: https://githubcopilotlitigation.com

#LicenseWashing #Apache #BSL #Boost #BSD #Eclipse #EPL #GNU #GPL #AGPL #Affero #LGPL #MIT #Mozilla #MPL

Do we need an #AGPL for #NeuralNetworks? (i.e. the code must be freely available, and so must any weights etc. that you use on the backend)?

@kytta Necessary, but not sufficient, is that the website must have a clear link "here is where you can get the source code running this site".

This is what the #AfferoGeneralPublicLicense (#AGPL) requires: When the licensed work is presented for users to interact with, there must be a link right there on the page for them to get the entire corresponding source code.

That doesn't address whether it *is* the corresponding source code the site actually runs. But it's a necessary first step.

@kainoa @weirdwriter @philsherry

Ah, I didn't know about it, but I will ping @realaravinth once more re: #mCaptcha.

mCaptcha is #AGPL and funded by @NGIZero

https://nlnet.nl/project/mCaptcha

At first glance, #KoodoReader seems like a really neat #OpenSource and #FOSS #AGPL ebook reader.

https://koodo.960960.xyz/en

#MinIO and #Weka are in a bit of a snit over open source software licensing. Weka uses MinIO's object storage server and client in their product and are accused of not following the #AGPL license. Here's the latest from MinIO, which adds some real drama here... https://blog.min.io/our-response-to-wekas-post-and-clarifying-terminology/

That #Twitter published such a repository under #AGPL is definitely a good development.

I suspect no contributions will be merged and there will no inbound licensing to care about, but... is there anyone left at Twitter with experience writing a CLA for a #copyleft project in a proprietary shop?
https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/issues/404#issuecomment-1492851992

Twitter released its recommendation algorithm for the Home/For you view under the terms of the #AGPL license. Unexpected, though I don't really follow what's going on there.
https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm

.@verge confuses the def. of #OpenSource, suggesting @Twitter has to “earn” the label. Being a free for all for contributions doesn’t make something #FOSS or not. The license does (#AGPL in this case). Cf. ESR’s classic “the Cathedral and the Bazaar.” https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/31/23664849/twitter-releases-algorithm-musk-open-source

wtf twitter actually did open source their algorithm and it’s #agpl

TODAY (March 31) at 9:00 PM CET my generative token "nd-genuary32nd-plants-chatgpt3-001" will be released on #fxhash.

The foundation was built by using #ChatGPT and this is the result of me transforming that code into a NFT.

https://www.fxhash.xyz/generative/slug/nd-genuary32nd-plants-chatgpt3-001

#generativeart #genart #nd #chatgpt3 #plants #flower #sun #midnight #nerddisco #agpl #opensource #aiinfluenced #canvas2d #params #javascript #generative #nft #crypto #tezos #blockchain #genart #art #mastoart

Weka Violates MinIO's Open Source Licenses
https://blog.min.io/weka-violates-minios-open-source-licenses/

#opensource #law #copyleft #agpl #freesoftware

#ChatGPT conversation histories leaked:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/openai-confirms-leak-of-chatgpt-conversation-histories

Can you guess who or what does Sam Altman from #OpenAI blame for it?

"A bug in an open source library."

Yup. #FLOSS is great for #OpenAI as a way to build on somebody else's code, and as a way to train their models on somebody else's code. But as soon as shit hits the fan, it *will* get thrown under the bus.

Wanna *bet* it's not an #AGPL library? SV hypercapitalists keep away from those!

#FOSS #InfoSec

Petition to call “liberal licenses” what they really are: “enclosable by rich people licenses.”

#mit #bsd #mpl #liberal #openSource #gpl #agpl #copyLeft #freeSoftware #foss

TIL the European Union Public License (EUPL), like AGPL, covers the *application service provider loophole*.

https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/eupl/eupl-guidelines-faq-infographics

However, it is not *viral* or *strong copyleft* in that linked code does not have to share-alike.

https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/eupl/matrix-eupl-compatible-open-source-licences#section-3

Seems like a nice balance for some stuff I might work on.

#openSource #licenses #EUPL #AGPL

_If_ the regular #AGPL spreads to ML models trained on it (and I don't know FSF's stance on this, not to mention the courts'), here is #ChatGPT proving it had access to #Mastodon source code. Now the code is not correct, it's not really the contents on github, but it the filenames are real, the classnames are real, seems clear enough that it had been trained on it.

This is nice. #AGPL-licensed self-hostable #Billing and #Invoicing platform..

They are inspired by @plausible in their choice for AGPL license and quoted #Plausible in a blog article on #licensing considerations:

https://www.getlago.com/blog/open-source-licensing-and-why-lago-chose-agplv3

https://www.getlago.com/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34773442

Another entry in my huge backlog of #delightful funding candidates..

https://codeberg.org/teaserbot-labs/delightful-funding/issues/1

@splitshockvirus
Loomio isn't federated (yet). I spent some time arguing for this a few years ago, but it wasn't a priority for the co-op who develop the software. But it's AGPL, so if someone else thought about the UX and wrote a good patch, they might be willing to merge it. Especially now that Mastodon is getting mainstream attention.

#Loomio #federation #AGPL

@parker@pl.psion.co @parker@leafposter.club

@osi oh that is great.

I forwarded to the #FOSS project considering relicensing from a permissive to a copyleft #AGPL license and wondering whether this should be AGPLv3-only or AGPLv3-and-later (with the project having a lot of contributors and large installed base).

See: https://social.coop/@smallcircles/109728803566889615

CC @webmink

@nilesh @post @aral I'm pretty comfortable that the #AGPL protects users of SaaS services from being locked into #FOSS commercial services. Yes - they might have a lot of data to move if they want to abandon the commercial provider they've chosen, but there's always an escape route if desired. The same is not true for proprietary or SaaS built on weakly (not #Copyleft) licensed components.

@KaKi87

Yes, that makes it hard, as there are a lot of contributors. As per the considerations posted by @neil on this thread the thought is that the #AGPL "or later" clause won't lead to an unacceptable v4 version, and we place trust in the #FSF to ensure that.

If trust is betrayed, then in both cases there's high effort relicensing as mitigation. Then the "or later" has disadvantage that the code up to then will available under a bad v4 version.

@django thank you!

Yes, it was related to this msg about differences and impact of choosing #AGPL v3-only or AGPLv3-or-later on a #FOSS project with a lot of contributors.

https://social.coop/@smallcircles/109728803566889615

I will pass this on.

@neil for a popular #FOSS project we're discussing relicensing from #MIT to either #AGPL-v3-or-later or AGPL-v3-only. Opinions vary.

On one hand v3-only licensing may become outdated by new legislation, or miss out if a v4 is much better. Relicensing is then a high effort activity.

OTOH having the "or later" seems like a folly, as its unknown what a future license version contains. If it is really bad, then that high effort relicensing is still in order.

Do you have an opinion on this choice?

Oh nice. I just found @keila an alternative to #Mailchimp that is #AGPL-licensend and implemented in #Elixir. You can self-host or host with a subscription plan.

https://www.keila.io

Good to see more #FOSS models like #Plausible that offer #BigTech alternatives.

@neil for sure!

I am all for using #AGPL but thinking it is just one small bit of protection. Not nearlyas much as people seem to think it provides.

It offers no guarantees whatsoever with corporate competitors able to throw so much weight in the game should our ecosystem have piqued their interest.

There's app types and features that are less attractive for monetization. If you are a #FOSS dev that wants to dabble in #ActivityPub and not see your work outcompeted, you may wanna focus there.

There is talk about Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (#EEE) by corporations entering the #Fediverse and how to protect against that.

#FOSS licenses are mentioned, like #AGPL. But how much protection does that offer, really? When a corporation might throw a hundred person product development team and a couple million bucks to just recreating someone's one-person project's innovations?

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/best-license-for-open-source-fedi-apps/2876/5

I recommend watching @darius #ActivityPub conference talk:

https://conf.tube/w/oPQjje8j6qBFj7NSQ9xCKj

from what I've been able to figure out so far, after Gitpod open-sourced their entire product to AGPL (inc enterprise bits which were proprietary), they accidentally enabled AWS/Azure/Google/Oracle to run Gitpod as a service and sell it to their own customers without having to pay Gitpod. Maybe that's what they want?

ie. another elastic search / OpenSearch moment in time just occurred.

#foss #licensing #opensource #gitpod #agpl #elasticsearch #opensearch

@andrasbacsai Interesting. Mastodon is #AGPL so i wouldn't mind using it aaS, as long as the provider doesn't bundle mandatory closed source functionality that locks in my data. So good vibe check there.
First question then is target audience. From what i've seen so far, it does take some effort to run this service, at least these days with the massive user migration. So taking that burden away may be significant. I don't know what they are. Maybe interview some admins on the major instances?

@msw @wwahammy @delroth

I'm not sure how making an offer for source that users can neither see nor access, could possibly be argued as having actually made an offer, but IANAL.

Things like "I wrote a check but never mailed it" generally doesn't fly in courts.

#Copyleft #AGPL #FreeSoftware

Just a reminder that I do maintain an #ActivityPub relay written in #rustlang and licensed under the #AGPL.

I run an invite-only instance of this relay primarily for furry servers at https://relay.asonix.dog, but if you want to run your own, the code and documentation is available at https://git.asonix.dog/asonix/relay with container images published at https://hub.docker.com/r/asonix/relay

Personal project - #Samizdat:
https://samizdat.is/

Web #censorship circumvention using technologies implemented in any modern browser.

Code:
https://0xacab.org/rysiek/samizdat/

License: #AGPL

Personal project - Scary #COVID19 Data:
https://rys.io/covid/

Graphing coronavirus outbreak globally using John Hopkins University data.

Code:
https://rys.io/covid/

License: #AGPL