Terms of Service - Didn't Read: help them grow!

[Heiki "Repentinus" Ojasild]

Hey,

On 18 September 2012 11:26, MJ Ray <mjr at phonecoop.coop> wrote:
> I don't see much about free software on there.  Some free software
> is mentioned briefly, under "No Class Yet".
Promoting the freedom of the users takes more than simply promoting
Free Software. Some people will inevitably use non-free software and
environments for the user base or features not available elsewhere. If
they can easily understand what they actually get, then it is an
invaluable service. If one makes an informed decision to give up one's
freedom, then there is not much we can do. But we can make sure that
the decision is informed, and hope that most people will not give up
their freedom.

> The site itself claims to be free software (I have my doubts because
> it looks like a derived work of other peoples' terms of service, so
> wouldn't it be covered by their licences too?  Which would probably be
> AGPL-incompatible, leaving an undistributable mess), but doesn't it
> mainly promote use of non-free software like Twitter at the moment?
The software powering the site is licensed under AGPL. The content
need not be. Furthermore, the set of facts contained in the referenced
Terms of Services is not copyrightable. Only the specific tangible
expression is. Thus, no derivative work issues arise. Furthermore, if
they did, it would almost certainly be fair use. As you can read in
the footer, some of the content is also licensed under CC licences.

> "Hire someone" or "pay part-time and full-time expert curators".
> What's the business model?  Where will the money go?
>
> If they reach the 10k (euros or dollars - it varies depending where
> you look), that's a basic living wage for about 33 people-weeks. Even
> that's ignoring the costs of hiring people.  So say they pay 3
> curators, where one is full-time and two are 0.5-time.  That's 16
> weeks at most - and then what happens?  Another begging bowl?
>
> It's a great project in some ways, but I'd like to know there's a plan
> beyond burning 10k in maybe three months, else I feel there are better
> projects for the money.
Hugo Roy can probably give a better answer (I have cc-ed him), but, to
me, it seems that the crucial part is giving the site some momentum by
covering major services. Once that will be done, it will probably take
relatively little maintenance. Of course, if it generated sufficient
interest to attract future donors, then it would be possible to pay
some people for full-time work on keeping the site updated and
expanding the coverage.


Cheers,
-- 
Heiki "Repentinus" Ojasild
FSFE Fellow (en) / FSFE ühinglane (et)
<repentinus at fsfe.org>
<https://wiki.fsfe.org/Fellows/repentinus>
<http://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/>