On 09/02/2008 05:52 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
Sometimes I get the feeling that Debian's users and Debian's developers live in separate worlds. There's currently a long thread in d-legal over the AGPL. One DD has expressed reservations towards the AGPL to the point where she has decided not to package a certain program covered by the AGPL.
Good idea.
Do Debian's users care about this sort of legal geekery or is everything fine as long as AGPLed programs go into non-free? Curious, - Jordi G. H.
I care. The AGPL is dangerous to Opensource. It is too aggressive and too restrictive. As Opensource becomes more dominant, software-as-a-service (SAAS) will become the primary way for people to make money through software. The AGPL threatens to cut off Opensource from its primary means of acquiring income and maintaining relevance.
The AGPL might also split the OSS community into opposing camps with results which are likely to be more painful and harmful in the long-term than the Gnome/KDE war.
I am in favor of Opensource because it allows me to be free and to make money, but if Opensource prohibited me from making money, I'd be against it. Of course, I am of no importance to you, but consider that Google, IBM, Redhat, Sun, Yahoo, and thousands of other companies are in the same situation.