"...copyleft is a tool designed to spread freedom in software, at any cost. The FSF, which wrote the GNU and Affero licenses, has the goal to make all software free as in freedom. Companies are ‘free’ to join the revolution, or to look somewhere else for their needs. The GNU project existed and survived long before it was mainstream (it started 25 years ago); the whole free software movement has now become too big to kill..."
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MrSnippity
15 years 41 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago
More restrictions = more freedom!
The GPLv2 wasn't strict enough because of tivoization and patents.
The GPLv3 will not be strict enough in the more and more web-centric future.
The AGPLv3 will not be good enough when the next unforeseen freedom-endangering-thing comes along.
It looks like the FSF will need to add more and more restrictions as time goes on to ensure our freedom.
Yay to restrictions!
akf
15 years 41 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago
for whom is it restrictive?
The question is: for whom is it restrictive?
The free software definition says:
In this freedom, it is the user's purpose that matters, not the developer's purpose; you as a user are free to run a program for your purposes, and if you distribute it to someone else, she is then free to run it for her purposes, but you are not entitled to impose your purposes on her.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
lozz
15 years 41 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago
Like "deregulation"
Yeah, this reminds me of the "deregulation" that Big Business sold to governments recently. They complained that the government regulations were "too restrictive" and were costing them money.
As soon as the regulations were dropped Big Businesses commenced a ripoff-fest against the population and standards dropped sharply.
These restrictions had been designed to protect the population from being ripped-off by Big Business and that protection was gone.
The "restrictions" of the AGPL are there to protect the user's freedom.