Re: free software extension listing for icecat

[alexus / dotcommon]

On Mon, 10 May 2010 23:08:27 -0400, Eric Morey <address@hidden> wrote:

[...]
> What about "Software as a Service" using GNU AGPL software? I don't know
> of any examples off of the top of my head. But the choice to use a
> server owned and operated by someone else to run software that is
> available under the GNU AGPL doesn't seem to be a problem to me. Any
> thoughts?

may be this is not a problem (rather a benefit) for people which are
running the
server hosting the service...

but i believe it IS A RELEVANT PROBLEM for all people using any SaaS,
*whatever*
is the software license of the service

a more detailed explaination is here:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html 

a small quoting:

"Many free software supporters assume that the problem of SaaS will be
solved by developing free software for servers. For the server operator's
sake, the programs on the server had better be free; if they are
proprietary, their owners have power over the server. That's unfair to the
operator, and doesn't help you at all. But if the programs on the server
are free, that doesn't protect you as the server's user from the effects
of
SaaS. They give freedom to the operator, but not to you.

Releasing the server software source code does benefit the community:
suitably skilled users can set up similar servers, perhaps changing the
software. But none of these servers would give you control over computing
you do on it, unless it's your server. The rest would all be SaaS. SaaS
always subjects you to the power of the server operator, and the only
remedy is, don't use SaaS! Don't use someone else's server to do your own
computing on data provided by you."


regards
al3xu5 / dotcommon

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