Explain why GNU's dogmatic dismissal of any software as a service, even LibreSaaS, is misguided #3

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opened 2020-08-14 13:23:03 +00:00 by mlncn · 1 comment

mlncn commented

2020-08-14 13:23:03 +00:00

(Migrated from gitlab.com)

Among other things, GNU seems to have inherited the Affero GPL after dismissing the entire concept of using software running on someone else's computer.

https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/software-security/agpl-affero-gpl-3/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License

And now one of the most prominent pages for the Affero GPL is GNU's Why Affero GPL page, which is linked at the top of their official definition for the license, tells people to "refuse to use services that are SaaSS" (service as a software substitute, what GNU calls SaaS, software as a service).

The AGPL is big in the LibreSaaS space, and having GNU present this blanket anti-SaaS approach is bad for the movement we need— focused on getting people the technology needed to gain more power over their lives in ways they genuinely control the technology. (Software that people run on their devices but have no practical path to changing because it would take a couple years of learning programming, languages for which there are few resources, and a complex toolchain is not inherently more liberating than software running on a server that people collectively decide on its next needs and employ programmers to implement.)

So in addition to explaining why GNU's dogmatic dismissal of any software as a service, even LibreSaaS, is misguided, we need a separate page that can be the de facto popular introduction to the AGPL.

The Synopsys blog has a good paragraph that happens to get to the fluidity between software as a service and software run by the user, especially in enterprise businesses:

Relying entirely on absence of distribution for open source compliance is just not a good idea. In reality, suppliers of software often flip back-and-forth fluidly between on-premises distribution and SaaS. An on-premises product can suddenly change into a SaaS product and vice versa, depending on the needs of customers. Some customers require local instances of software for regulatory or security reasons. Others want to avoid transmitting data across national borders. If a SaaS supplier has the opportunity to sell to such a customer, no one wants to be the unfortunate soul who has to tell the head of sales: no, we can’t do that because on-premises deployment is distribution, and it breaks all of our open source compliance processes. So it’s always best to develop compliance processes that treat SaaS as if it might someday be distributed.

Among other things, GNU seems to have inherited the Affero GPL after dismissing the entire concept of using software running on someone else's computer. https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/software-security/agpl-affero-gpl-3/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License And now one of the most prominent pages for the Affero GPL is [GNU's Why Affero GPL](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html) page, which is linked at the top of their [official definition for the license](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html), tells people to "refuse to use services that are SaaSS" (service as a software substitute, what GNU calls SaaS, software as a service). The AGPL is big in the LibreSaaS space, and having GNU present this blanket anti-SaaS approach is bad for the movement we need— focused on getting people the technology needed to gain more power over their lives in ways they genuinely control the technology. (Software that people run on their devices but have no practical path to changing because it would take a couple years of learning programming, languages for which there are few resources, and a complex toolchain is *not* inherently more liberating than software running on a server that people collectively decide on its next needs and employ programmers to implement.) So in addition to explaining why GNU's dogmatic dismissal of any software as a service, even LibreSaaS, is misguided, we need a separate page that can be the de facto popular introduction to the AGPL. *** The [Synopsys blog](https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/software-security/agpl-affero-gpl-3/) has a good paragraph that happens to get to the fluidity between software as a service and software run by the user, especially in enterprise businesses: > Relying entirely on absence of distribution for open source compliance is just not a good idea. In reality, suppliers of software often flip back-and-forth fluidly between on-premises distribution and SaaS. An on-premises product can suddenly change into a SaaS product and vice versa, depending on the needs of customers. Some customers require local instances of software for regulatory or security reasons. Others want to avoid transmitting data across national borders. If a SaaS supplier has the opportunity to sell to such a customer, no one wants to be the unfortunate soul who has to tell the head of sales: no, we can’t do that because on-premises deployment is distribution, and it breaks all of our open source compliance processes. So it’s always best to develop compliance processes that treat SaaS as if it might someday be distributed.

mlncn commented

2020-08-14 14:26:34 +00:00

(Migrated from gitlab.com)

changed the description