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Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

blog.joinmastodon.org

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Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#51

Post by jrootabega »

usui wrote: post #46
jrootabega wrote: post #30

> As far as personal feelings are concerned, of course we would prefer if people so antithetical to our values did not use and benefit from our labour And sensible people would prefer that license violations would be published and pursued fairly, and personal feelings kept personal, rather than creating a soft list of people and perspectives whose online/computing freedom is less important than others.

Is there an example of a software with a license with more overt political views being directly stated in the agreement ? I'm NOT saying that it's wrong to have personal views, or to make a statement about what Mastodon feels about Trump's Truth Social, but I am curious if there is software in wide-use with something like "No anti-vaxxers". So far the most ideology-enforcing licenses I know are mainly about the battl…

There's the json "don't use this for evil" license.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#52

Post by [deleted] »

roenxi wrote: post #21

One of Trump's biggest advantages is his enemies drastically over-react to things and end up looking stupid. GPL violations are a serious business and Mastodon is well within their rights to ask for the code to be released. But the business hasn't even opened yet and they're already waving permanent revocation around. This sort of aggression in enforcing the GPL may actually be unprecedented.

[deleted]

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#53

Post by jrootabega »

furyg3 wrote: post #43
jrootabega wrote: post #30

> As far as personal feelings are concerned, of course we would prefer if people so antithetical to our values did not use and benefit from our labour And sensible people would prefer that license violations would be published and pursued fairly, and personal feelings kept personal, rather than creating a soft list of people and perspectives whose online/computing freedom is less important than others.

Just as Truth Social can use Mastodon's source code to spread lies and hate as long as they comply with the license, so can Mastodon use their own blog to disprove of Truth Social... as long as they enforce the license. Their statement does not detract from their action.

I think it makes people believe they will enforce the license unevenly to satisfy their personal feelings about who is using it, as well as add an unwritten "these kinds of people are are not allowed to use our software" clause to their license.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#54

Post by nkozyra »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #41
roenxi wrote: post #21

One of Trump's biggest advantages is his enemies drastically over-react to things and end up looking stupid. GPL violations are a serious business and Mastodon is well within their rights to ask for the code to be released. But the business hasn't even opened yet and they're already waving permanent revocation around. This sort of aggression in enforcing the GPL may actually be unprecedented.

I agree with you. The following is my opinion of what happened, not an endorsement. Trump's role in our history was primarily a f-you to the established players in both parties. He won because he made all the right people mad. And the more his enemies drastically over-react the more powerful he becomes.

But for all that superficial posturing, he accomplished very little of his agenda and generally ended up trying to play ball anyway. The anti-establishment game lasted until he entered the white House.

His primary accomplishment was building a base of angry people.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#55

Post by nathanappere »

the-dude wrote: post #49
dmm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you don't modify the sources you have to provide them to anyone who uses the service.

There is no service.

"Not publicly available" is not the same as "there is no service".

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#56

Post by im3w1l »

Truth social is, as far as I'm aware, not launched. Thus I'm curious whether the AGPL "if you run a modified program on a server and let other users communicate with it there" has really been triggered.

Edit: This was based on the https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html explanation of the AGPL but the quote is not present in the license itself.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#57

Post by jd115 »

pibechorro wrote: post #16
rogual wrote: post #10

Do we really have to give this guy the #1 Hacker News story? He was fading into the background so nicely.

You mean the person who was the sitting president of the united states, who got deplatformed in unison by big tech social media, and is now fighting against censorship by using tech? Yeah, that is not relevant at all to hackernews /s

No, we mean the fat orange KGB troll by the same name.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#58

Post by dmm »

the-dude wrote: post #49
dmm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you don't modify the sources you have to provide them to anyone who uses the service.

There is no service.

People were able to access the service and create accounts. Those people are entitled to the sources.

This would immediately go away if they just posted a tarball of the almost certainly unmodified sources. I guess nobody running this understands what's going on?

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#59

Post by revolvingocelot »

jrootabega wrote: post #53
furyg3 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as Truth Social can use Mastodon's source code to spread lies and hate as long as they comply with the license, so can Mastodon use their own blog to disprove of Truth Social... as long as they enforce the license. Their statement does not detract from their action.

I think it makes people believe they will enforce the license unevenly to satisfy their personal feelings about who is using it, as well as add an unwritten "these kinds of people are are not allowed to use our software" clause to their license.

A sensible person might wonder what justification you have for that belief. Looking at the respective histories of both groups, I think you'll find that the violators are the sort of people to engage in uneven enforcement.

Moreover, is there another Mastodon license violator who's getting away with it because of their ostensibly favourable politics? What does it mean for your supposition if there's only the one violator?

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#60

Post by masklinn »

d_theorist wrote: post #32

Are the quoted terms actually incorrect or in violation of the license? >all source code ... are owned or controlled by us or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright and trademark laws That's correct isn't it? The mastodon code would be licensed to them under the AGPL. So I am not sure this should be a source of "worry" in and of itself. The potential issue appears to be that they have modified the mastodon co…

I'm not sure it's correct, since they're reusing mastodon they should be clearly indicating that parts or all of the work is licensed under AGPLv3. And the claims you quote seem at best weasely if the entire thing is derivative of mastodon (and thus not in any way owned by truth social).

Per my reading of the AGPLv3 (though IANAL), section 5 seems to be rather thoroughly violated:

5. Conveying Modified Source Versions.

You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modifications to produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under the terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified it, and giving a relevant date.

b) The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is released under this License and any conditions added under section 7. This requirement modifies the requirement in section 4 to "keep intact all notices".

c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. This License will therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7 additional terms, to the whole of the work, and all its parts, regardless of how they are packaged. This License gives no permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not invalidate such permission if you have separately received it.

d) If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your work need not make them do so.

Truth seems to violate:

- 5 (a) by not having prominent notices that it's a Mastodon fork (assuming there's actual divergences from mastodon aside from the —— illegal —— white-labeling modifications)

- 5 (b) by not indicating that parts of it (and which) are under AGPLv3

- 5 (c) by not providing licensing terms for the mastodon derivation it must license out

- 5 (d) by having actually removed existing legal notice entirely

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