Re: tunefl and other web services

[Graham Percival]

On Thu, Jul 05, 2012 at 03:57:00PM +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
> Graham Percival <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> >> > "A GNU program should not recommend, promote, or grant legitimacy
> >> > to the use of any non-free program. Proprietary software is a
> >> > social and ethical problem, and our aim is to put an end to that
> >> > problem."
> >> > http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/References.html
> >
> > I must be blind, because I can't find any source code on the
> > scorio website.  I _do_ see apps for the ipad, and I know that due
> > to Apple's licensing terms, those aren't compatible with the GPL.
> 
> The GPLv3 does not address the availability of software used as a
> service: you need to use the Affero GPL for that.
> 
> <URL:http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Freedom-for-Web-Pages.html#Freedom-for-Web-Pages>
> states for hosting GNU software:

Hmm.  I think that the GNU coding style guide (above) is more
relevant here, but you have a good point.

> The situation changes immediately if the named sites actually also
> license or sell the software their site is running on.

Scorio sells ipad apps; it's not clear how closely tied those are
to their website software.  But I think this is exactly what
"granting legitimacy to the use of any non-free program" is
referring to.

You have a stronger point about tunefl.  But I still think the
coding standards are still firmly against it.

- Graham