"M. Drew Streib" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 11:10:34AM -0400, Brian T. Sniffen wrote:
>> out of networked environments. If they succeed in promulgating these
>> ideas, they'll hinder growth of networked systems. Perhaps a good way
>
> I could agree with you, except that networked systems can't really
> be hindered too much now. They are pretty much a given.
In that case, won't it hinder the use of APSL/Affero GPL licensed
software in networked environments?
> Apple isn't so much discriminating against a use model, as discriminating
> against _all_ use, in either a networked or distribution model, without
> distributing source. Think of it as discriminating against the
> business model of 'service', rather than the use of networked software.
>
> They're simply cutting off the common GPL bypass these days, which
> basically lets ASPs, web services, etc basically use GPL'd software
> with no source releases (since no binaries are ever 'distributed' as
> such). Since most of the net seems to be moving towards service models
> and away from distribution models, this is merely a licence trying
> to catch up.
So why hinder a typesetter who returns his work as PDF more than a
typesetter who returns printed pages? Why favor an HTML file
distributed on a floppy over one distributed via HTTP? This
insistence that interacting with software over a network of electrons
is somehow different from interacting with software via DHL is
ridiculous. It's not a license catching up, or closing loopholes
without impacting freedom: it's that license authors saw something
which bothered them, and are prohibiting it in their licenses.
They're allowed to do that, certainly, but that doesn't make it Free.
-Brian
--
Brian T. Sniffen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.evenmere.org/~bts/
