Re: Do Debian's users care about the AGPL?
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 04:54:54PM +0300, Andrei Popescu wrote:
> On Thu,04.Sep.08, 08:51:13, Gregory Seidman wrote:
> > 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 people store their data with the provider (or use a provider who
> doesn't provide options) it is their choice and it really doesn't matter
> if the application is GPL, AGPL or closed source, but I'm not sure how
> many people would use such a service.
Correct.
> > 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).
>
> (I think you meant ODF)
Yes, sorry, ODF.
> But if the only option would be some binary and proprietary format
> *specific* to Google Apps you would be forced to use their service just
> to open the file on your own computer and we are back at where we are now
> with MS Office[*]. This is the case I was talking about and the GPL
> doesn't cover this, AGPL does.
[...]
This is a strawman. The AGPL doesn't make it difficult to accomplish the
same thing, it just requires a little more hoop jumping.
Consider an AGPL'd app that has some open file format download. Evil Inc.
takes said app, tears out the bit that sends the open format to the user
and has it write to (server side) disk instead, then provides a link to a
separate, closed source web app that reads the AGPL'd app's open format
from disk and converts it to a proprietary format for download. Evil Inc.
releases its changes to the AGPL'd app without exposing anything about
their proprietary format. You, as a user, lose, and the AGPL was no help at
all.
> Regards,
> Andrei
--Greg
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