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> I'm not sure why that use-case wasn't included in the original GPL, come to think of it. My guess is just that it wasn't in practice possible to do what Stall
by codeflo 13y ago
> I'm not sure why that use-case wasn't included in the original GPL, come to think of it. My guess is just that it wasn't in practice possible to do what Stallman objected to at a large scale, given technology of the day.
Stallman isn't exactly known for letting practicality and feasibility compromise his ideals. Given that, as you said, the usecase was widespread when the FSF was founded, I consider it much more likely that he considered this case and didn't include it on purpose.
However, if you or anyone else has a good (older) quote from RMS on whether he considers it evil to connect your free browser to a proprietary HTTP server, I'd be very interested to see it.
The only thing I could find (actually rather recent, 2010's The JavaScript Trap [1]) only argues that a free browser shouldn't run proprietary JavaScript on your own computer, because that would violate your software freedom. It says nothing to suggest that the HTTP download of data from a proprietary server is considered a problem.
[1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html
- jiggy2011 13y agohttps://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-s...
- mjn 13y ago> Stallman isn't exactly known for letting practicality and feasibility compromise his ideals. When it comes to license choice, he's always been about a specific kind of pragmatism: what will in practice produce more free software? The GPL, LGPL, Affero GPL, etc. are means to that end employed in different situations. He could be empirically wrong with some of his choices (and probably is), but I don't see him as being particularly tied to the mechanism, vs. the outcome. I actually think there's a decent argument that the existence of the Affero GPL encourages more free software in specific niches. Some companies are willing to release their SaaS apps under the Affero GPL who wouldn't have been willing to release them under the BSD, LGPL, or GPL, because they fear those licenses enable proprietary competitors. For example, Launchpad is AGPL. If the AGPL didn't exist, my guess is that they'd just have stayed proprietary, like GitHub has.