[GTALUG] "'Opens source' is not 'free software'"

[ac]

On Thu, 13 Jul 2017 11:56:08 -0400
Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:
> On 13 July 2017 at 11:27, Lennart Sorensen
> <lsorense at csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
> > Can developers  
> > > incorporate GPL software while wholly circumventing the FSF's
> > > social  goals?  
> > > This paradigm needs to be addressed but IMO has been largely
> > > ignored for  an assortment of reasons.  
> > I believe the answer is that yes they can.  This appears to be why
> > the AGPL license exists as per this:
> > https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.en.html  
> ​It exists, but barely
> <https://www.blackducksoftware.com/top-open-source-licenses>, to the
> point of irrelevance. And even the description of the license admits
> that it doesn't really solve the open/closed issues inherent in SaaS.
> So my point stands that this is an important facet of software
> freedom that has been lost amidst the dogmatism of "free software"
> versus "open source".
> 
is there any consensus that cloud presents the single greatest threat to
future software freedom? (and users are mostly apathetic in their
financial support of various offerings as those relate to future
freedom, vendor lock in and many other potentially evil things)?

Andre