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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

#471

Post by LevGoldstein »

Dumblydorr wrote: post #251
roenxi wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all software was licensed that way, 5-15 years would pass then suddenly there'd be a whole bunch of "Wow, Stallman was right again! We should have been using free software licenses!" style articles. Restricting software use to only people approved by the creators is a terrible idea. Society has to operate with some level of trust that even people we disagree with, using methods we don't approve of, have the potent…

Is it really a terrible idea to restrict your software from being used to control weaponry? To spread lies about science, like climate change denial or vaccine lies? To host child pornography sharing? These above scenarios amount to handing criminals and bad actors powerful technological tools which allow them to increase harms done to society. This is a software company's choice, there is no law that states a compan…

>Is it really a terrible idea to restrict your software from being used to control weaponry?

Seems reasonable until you do something unrelated to offend the licensor and they decide to leverage a very loose definition of weaponry/munitions against you. For example, have a look at what is consider munitions for the purpose of export controls in the USA, and consider what additional items have been regulated as munitions in the past:

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

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

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

#472

Post by ipaddr »

blitzar wrote: post #457
ipaddr wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should you be allowed to only sell to white men? It cuts many ways.

If it is fake tan for men, are you obliged to find some black customers?

Can you sell it and later find out a black man is going to use it and prevent that man from using it?

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

#473

Post by kkjjkgjjgg »

margalabargala wrote: post #419
kkjjkgjjgg wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until "Truth Social" has been stopped, presumably...

Or just their license violations.

Violation. And at the moment, nothing seems to be happening? Are they due to a punishment, or, according to the claims, they would just not be allowed to use the software anymore? Since they are not using it at the moment, there is nothing to see?

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

#474

Post by quotemstr »

> They bound their open-source license to a Code of Conduct

That's called a proprietary software license. Usage restrictions disqualify software as free software or open source. This kind of restriction makes me cringe, and I wish someone would just defy these guys and dare them to actually take the issue to court. I don't think they would.

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

#475

Post by dmos62 »

mdp2021 wrote: post #271
dmos62 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The creators are themselves fruit of the society. It's short-sighted to grant them the privilege to withhold their fruit.

Really obscure: be more clear. The creators are not simply the outcome of a populated space but of its navigation, through orientation, implying the sought, the accepted and the refused. Their «fruit» is produced accordingly - and not just "owing to society", but also "in spite of it" - and represents an intention, which is conditional to the product itself.

Intention, orientation and living "in spite" of society is part and parcel of the social individual. I'm not putting him down; I'm just deflating him. I'm not devaluing individualism either, it's a tool, but, to me, to say that an individual has autogenerated his achievements is like saying that a plant's flower does not come from the plant.

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

#476

Post by quotemstr »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #294
Dumblydorr wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really a terrible idea to restrict your software from being used to control weaponry? To spread lies about science, like climate change denial or vaccine lies? To host child pornography sharing? These above scenarios amount to handing criminals and bad actors powerful technological tools which allow them to increase harms done to society. This is a software company's choice, there is no law that states a compan…

Define: weaponry. I imagine an autonomous sentry-turret (Half-Life, Portal, etc) comes to mind. Obviously that’s right-out. But what about airsoft or paintball? Those are recreational activities, but in some jurisdictions their respective “guns” can be legally considered weapons because they can still do serious bodily harm - as well as intimidate. ——— Another example is “Windows for Warships”: you could build this s…

> Define: weaponry.

If activists can define "infrastructure" as social programs, they can define "weaponry" as end-to-end encryption, cryptocurrency, or just websites that express perspectives that they dislike. We all lose when people play language games like this.

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

#477

Post by quotemstr »

themaninthedark wrote: post #177
geewee wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? In what world does using software to marginalize people or mislead the public create a better world?

See, this is where the creators of the CoC made a mistake, either of malice or ignorance. >(Do Not)Use ml5.js to build tools that discriminate against marginalized communities That could be better put as >(Do Not)Use ml5.js to build tools that discriminate By adding in "marginalized communities", they are creating loopholes. Some discrimination is good, as long as it is to people we don't like. Is discrimination agai…

They don't mean the words literally. As you point out, there's no consistent and clear definition. What the ml5.js license actually means is that the creators will harass --- at first socially, then maybe legally --- members of their political outgroup who use their software. It's not conduct they're prohibiting, but aid and comfort to the enemy tribe.

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

#478

Post by quotemstr »

kkjjkgjjgg wrote: post #267
s7r wrote: post #121

In terms of "antithetical values", the machine learning project ml5js.org actually did something about this. They bound their open-source license to a Code of Conduct¹, which forbids the use of their ML software for (1) discriminating against marginalized communities, (2) building tools that disingenuously manipulate public opinion, (3) building tools of mass surveillance and prediction to repress the rights of peopl…

So who decides what is "disingeniously manipulating public opinion"? I think for many people that statement is too vague and hence the risk of using that software is too high.

> disingeniously manipulating public opinion

This is code for promoting viewpoints that the creators dislike.

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

#479

Post by mumblemumble »

nixroot wrote: post #451
mumblemumble wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See section 8, "Termination": https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html Revoke may not be the legally correct word to use, but it's an informal blog post and not a legal document, and what they intended to say is clear enough. I think that your understanding of how the licensure works is a bit off. Open source software is still individually licensed to everyone. The copyright holder retains copyright, and can ter…

Interesting, I was not aware of that. I did not take termination into account in the second paragraph. I was referring to AGPL being addressed to anyone instead of a specific party. This means that a full revocation of the license would revoke it from everyone, even though that's not possible with AGPL. This does not apply to terminating licensees as you mentioned which appears to be what they mean and is possible un…

Well, be careful there, too. "Revoke" means something specific in contract law. It sounds from the way you're talking that you're trying to use a more everyday definition of the term to understand this contract.

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

#480

Post by HKH2 »

thinkcontext wrote: post #265
HKH2 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a surprise that those people happen to be neocons. Somehow we're supposed to believe George W. Bush is a good guy after all.

I'm confused, what do GWB or neocons have to do with a willingness to lie about elections? Are you saying those two are bad because they aren't willing to lie about it?

My point is that he is purging neocons, and it seems you want to construe it as being all about election issues and that he was okay with them before that.
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