5 ms·

Does Apache 2.0 license protect from Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (Microsoft) or from Embrace, SaaS, Tax (AWS and the like) in any way?

by glogla 5y ago

goodpoint 5y ago
No. Like BSD and MIT it cannot protect from prorietization, tivoization and SaaS. You need GPLv3 or AGPL for that.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  Gplv3 doesn't protect against saas
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    That's why I wrote AGPL in the sentence.
    - whimsicalism 5y ago
      Yes, but your sentence suggests either of those would be protective against all of the former.
- skinkestek 5y ago
  It is a bit more nuanced than that: The way you wrote it makes it sound like someone can make the project proprietary over night. They cannot and I wish GPL people would stop pretending. Whoever has a copy of the repo or even a snapshot of the source can continue using and developing it under the original license. What one, strong contributor can do is make a proprietary fork and stop contributing towards the original open source one, possibly dumping prices and thereby starving the original project of code and donations.
jillesvangurp 5y ago
Together with the lack of copyright transfers, it just guarantees the code will always be available under the same license. There can't be any re-licensing of existing code without twisting the arms of every single copyright holder. No more, no less. It gives nobody an exclusive control point. It gives nobody exclusive rights to exploit. So, yes, Amazon can spin up as many matrix servers as they want. And so can MS. And so can Google. Maybe that wouldn't be such a horrible idea as they have mutually incompatible products that loosely overlap with the matrix feature set; those things interconnecting would be progress. Email is doing pretty OK decades after MS tried to embrace and extend via outlook and exchange. Federated communication networks are nice. So, that's a feature not a bug.

Does Apache 2.0 license protect from Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (Microsoft) or from Embrace, SaaS, Tax (AWS and the like) in any way?

by glogla 5y ago

Does Apache 2.0 license protect from Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (Microsoft) or from Embrace, SaaS, Tax (AWS and the like) in any way?

goodpoint 5y ago

No. Like BSD and MIT it cannot protect from prorietization, tivoization and SaaS. You need GPLv3 or AGPL for that.

whimsicalism 5y ago
Gplv3 doesn't protect against saas
- goodpoint 5y ago
  That's why I wrote AGPL in the sentence.
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    Yes, but your sentence suggests either of those would be protective against all of the former.
skinkestek 5y ago
It is a bit more nuanced than that: The way you wrote it makes it sound like someone can make the project proprietary over night. They cannot and I wish GPL people would stop pretending. Whoever has a copy of the repo or even a snapshot of the source can continue using and developing it under the original license. What one, strong contributor can do is make a proprietary fork and stop contributing towards the original open source one, possibly dumping prices and thereby starving the original project of code and donations.

jillesvangurp 5y ago

Together with the lack of copyright transfers, it just guarantees the code will always be available under the same license. There can't be any re-licensing of existing code without twisting the arms of every single copyright holder. No more, no less. It gives nobody an exclusive control point. It gives nobody exclusive rights to exploit. So, yes, Amazon can spin up as many matrix servers as they want. And so can MS. And so can Google. Maybe that wouldn't be such a horrible idea as they have mutually incompatible products that loosely overlap with the matrix feature set; those things interconnecting would be progress. Email is doing pretty OK decades after MS tried to embrace and extend via outlook and exchange. Federated communication networks are nice. So, that's a feature not a bug.