Web services and free software

[MJ Ray]

Alex Hudson <home at alexhudson.com> wrote:
> Ah, ok. I suspect MJ's point was related to other free software
> licences, but he can clarify that if not.

I actually meant GPLv3 was less hacker-friendly than GPLv2, but GPLv2
was already less hacker-friendly than many other free software
licences.  Just the sheer length and complexity of concepts made it
that way.  In GPLv2, much of that seemed necessary.  With GPLv3, I'm
not sure yet.

[...]
> So, primarily, I don't see that web applications should get special
> treatment, and I wouldn't like to see such a feature in (e.g) CLI
> applications. [...]

I don't see how requiring programmers to include more than a simple
information statement in a program's output is acceptable for free
software.  IIRC, AGPL seemed to claim it was to do with that output
being a network-based user interface, but that's a very dodgy line
crossed from the GPL, which doesn't place obnoxious restrictions on
program output.  For example, do survey form design programs have a
paper-based user interface or is that merely output?  Why should the
freedom standard differ if that form design is to HTTP not paper?

Regards,
-- 
MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Experienced webmaster-developers for hire http://www.ttllp.co.uk/
Also: statistician, sysadmin, online shop builder, workers co-op.
Writing on koha, debian, sat TV, Kewstoke http://mjr.towers.org.uk/