Re: Do Debian's users care about the AGPL?
On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 7:51 AM, Gregory Seidman
<gsslist+debian@anthropohedron.net> 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.
You're locked into the proprietary format regardless of your ability
to retrieve your documents from the server because the GPL doesn't
give you access the source of the application to thus build the
software locally and use your documents. The AGPL is indirectly
addressing lock-in here.
--
Chris
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