Let's pretend we're proponents of free and open source software, enlist an army of week intentioned FOSS developers to contribute to our project, and once successfully deployed in many enterprises across the industry...
Pull the rug out and convert it into a proprietary product with a bunch of undisclosed, hidden code that we won't ever show you - Muahahaha...
Yeah. I see this happening right now in several prominent and celebrated open source projects that you're probably completely oblivious to those sinister objectives.
This is why the most ubiquitous desktop operating system in the world is Minix.
What's that you say?
Yup, Minix. But that's no secret, the cat was out of the bag on that one a few years back (after being secretly so for many years).
Before you contribute any more code, translations, or documentation to a software project, consider this:
Now, there's another point to be made here, without specifically naming any projects currently abusing user contributions. Let's call this hypothetical project "hammer&anvil", itself a fork of a popular software project - but claims it's all about being free and transparent, wanting to distinguish itself from the project it's forked from by adopting GPL3 instead of a permissive license.
Sure, the project's BDFL (let's call her "Strawberry Daiquiri"), says one day, "were forming a fork of project X because they've formed a company and I'm afraid what they are going to do with X because it's under a permissive license. This girl will be brutally transparent and completely run by the community under the philosophy of anarchy, but we're going to call it a sociocracy so you don't know that it's really just me making a proprietary product for my own ambitions".
Well, Miss Daquiri decides to capture by capitalizing upon the sentiment that folks have for Copyleft - it's supposed to protect free software, right?
Well, this fork (hammer& anvil) is a hosted solution - meaning SaaS, meaning, it runs elsewhere (other than in your computer) in the cloud as a publicly accessible service. Hmmmm.
That means that the most appropriate Copyleft license is likely the AGPL, and not the GPL as one would expect fur a desktop or other local program that you actually download and install in your laptop or server.
The GPL requires that when you distribute (give away or sell) your program, either by letting someone download or handing it to them on a USB stick, Etc., You must also make available ALL of the source code, including any changes you've made to the program.
But if you run a modified GPL program as a service in the cloud you don't have to provide ANY off the changes you've made to the code.
Hmmm.
With AGPL you do have to supply your users with ANY code modifications you've made to the running service to which they have accounts...
So let's just say that you fork Mastodon, and call it Glitch-Soc, modify it, and run it in the cloud for people to create accounts on and use (for free or for monthly subscription fees - it doesn't matter). ANY and ALL changes to the code base that you make MUST be made available anytime a user asks for the source code, because it's an #AGPL licensed product.
And in reality, such is actually the case with this exceedingly popular and capable #fork. It's a fine product in it's own right.
But had you changed the license to all contributions moving forward to #GPL, you wouldn't have to provide any modifications you made (unless you give or sell the software product itself on say, a USB stick or via download).
Why? Because you're just allowing them to access and use your service, your not actually giving them the program to use for themselves elsewhere - so any modifications you made since forking under a different license (GPL instead of AGPL) isn't something you have to show them.
You've essentially created a #proprietary product (if you're so nefarious as to hide your code changes by butt disclosing them), the only code of which you must supply being that which existed under the AGPL before you forked it.
Both #Copyleft and permissive open source #licenses like #BSD and #MIT can be a good thing, or they can be abused beyond the intentions of the #FOSS inclined project contributors. Just make sure that you understand what can and cannot be changed where your intended purpose for the #distribution and #availability of source code is concerned....
There are BIG differences between the ramifications of each #license and how they can affect transparency and distribution of your free gifts to the world.
In our hypothetical scenario with hammer&anvil, the #BDFL, #Strawberry Daiquiri, has decided that she's going to launch a hosted service, and she's going to include things that you don't see and can't be aware of behind the scenes which, if disclosed, you would have nothing to do with - but you'll never know what kinds of scary things she's done with the product that only resembles the original on the surface, because Miss Daquiri will never have to show you the code she has added behind the scenes.
"Beautiful Victor, Beautiful."
-The Monster, speaking to his creator in the film, 'Frankenstein, The True Story'.
Free news aggregator and news analysis site developed by a group of researchers at MIT and elsewhere to improve your access to trustworthy news. Provides multiple viewpoints from different publishers to give context to current news headlines....
It's a history of women in science as seen through the lense of women at MIT.
It's incredible, and also really, REALLY hard.
I don't think I have ever yelled FUCK YOU more times at a book in my life.
Sometimes, as a guy, it's easy to hear people talk about "the patriarchy" and see it as an abstract idea. It SO isn't, and this book will grind that lesson into your brain with all the painful ferocity we men deserve.
If you ever have the problem of forgetting you were writing something and closing a window, or accidentally navigating away from the page on which you are composing, this is the browser extension to save your ass: Form History Control....
Une équipe du MIT a créé un appareil qui produit de l'électricité quand on le met en présence d'air humide.
Pour l'instant il s'agit d'un disque de 4 cm de diamètre, mais l'idée est de produire, d'ici à fin 2024, un prototype de la taille d'une machine à laver qui pourrait générer 10 kWh par jour.
Shoutout to all of the contributors to SourceGraph whose work was just made closed source, big thanks to SourceGraph for pissing on them, I'm sure they really appreciate it. All those users who thought your FOSS product was really cool surely still think your product is super cool now that you've taken their rights away
@drewdevault I unfortunately don't get to talk to the corporate lawyers. It's either I lose the contract or implement the CLA. If I asked I'd probably be billed $600 an hour just for them to say no.
Re: sale of relicense — yes. I'd sooner rather not do it at all, though.
If #MIT works better a re-license may be in order. I don't know how corpos feel about MIT, but I imagine it's ok...
Ich finde es entbehrt nicht einer gewissen Komik, dass jetzt vor allem die Accounts, die hier schon lange brach liegen, nun betonen, dass ein soziales Netzwerk nur durch aktive Teilnahme funktioniert und interessant wird. Und nicht wenige dieser Accounts gehören Journalist*innen...
The free open source forum software NodeBB is now working on official Fediverse support. Federation isn't ready yet, but if this interests you, you might want to follow their account:
@stanford good point! We don't highlight the #foss aspect as much because we sell hosting, professional support & maintenance, and custom dev in order to feed ourselves and fund development of the forum software. We're a one product shop and every dollar we earn goes towards #nodebb 🙂
I like to stay principled when it comes to our offering. You won't see a gimped "community" version while gating the cool stuff behind a paywall. Most things we build are available to everyone under #mit license.
An open source re-implementation of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion - GitHub - OpenLoco/OpenLoco: An open source re-implementation of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion
Yesterday, Gil Strang gave his final lecture at MIT. It was monumental enough to be live streamed with guests coming in to talk about his influence. The fact that it was a normal class lecture is so appropriate. It is the end of an era in #teaching.
I only visited MIT once, for an ASA conference, but Strang has affected my life deeply. His teaching of linear algebra is the best I have ever seen, full stop.
MIT's 'PhotoGuard' protects your images from malicious AI edits | Engadget (www.engadget.com)
A new digital watermarking technique for MIT CSAIL seeks to prevent unauthorized image edits by malicious AI..
Improve the News - News aggregator that provides context across the political spectrum, allowing for nuanced analysis of current events (www.improvethenews.org)
Free news aggregator and news analysis site developed by a group of researchers at MIT and elsewhere to improve your access to trustworthy news. Provides multiple viewpoints from different publishers to give context to current news headlines....
How to automatically save posts & comments as draft (firefox/chrome plugin)
If you ever have the problem of forgetting you were writing something and closing a window, or accidentally navigating away from the page on which you are composing, this is the browser extension to save your ass: Form History Control....
An open source re-implementation of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion (github.com)
An open source re-implementation of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion - GitHub - OpenLoco/OpenLoco: An open source re-implementation of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion