Re: Do Debian's users care about the AGPL?
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 12:58:01PM +0300, Andrei Popescu wrote:
[...]
> * webapps
> - Author writes a spreadsheet program
> - some company customizes the program and ads support for an own
> proprietary file format, but they will most likely:
> o put it up on own servers to generate revenue rather then
> o sell it to other service providers
>
> By using GPL in this scenario, people accessing the service will find
> themselves locked-in due to the proprietary file format, while with the
> AGPL everybody has a chance to implement support for it.
I call bullshit. People are locked into the service because their data
exists on the server's filesystem rather than their own, regardless of what
format it is in. Having the source code for the service does not change
that in any way. The AGPL does not address lock-in at all.
If we take Google's office apps as an example, you'll notice that you are
not locked into using either the spreadsheet or the word processor. That
isn't because you have source code freedoms (you don't) but because you can
download your files in standard and free formats (OpenOffice). You can also
download presentations as PowerPoint files, and one could argue that that
is free since OOo will read it.
In my opinion the AGPL leans a little too much toward "I wrote it so you
have to do what I say" rather than "share and share alike." I don't believe
it will be any more effective in achieving the goals of Free software than
the plain old GPL.
> Also, reading the archives of debian-legal it seems to me the biggest
> concern is whether the requirement of providing the source doesn't put a
> too high *financial* burden (ex. hosting, bandwidth, etc. costs) on
> providers of AGPL webapps.
Is that even relevant to the DFSG?
> Regards,
> Andrei
--Greg
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