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Bear is now source-available

herman.bearblog.dev

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Re: Bear is now source-available

#491
post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve heard this one before and if the agpl were two years old I’d buy it. But they had ample opportunity to craft a better license by now, so at this point it’s hard to believe that’s not just a convenient excuse. Don’t like the agpl wording, but agree with the spirit? Ok, you have the lawyers, write a better agpl that abides by the same spirit and which you trust. But: nothing. And waiting won’t change that. It may…

you're arguing with the messenger. whether or not you buy anything is completely immaterial, what matters is the actual position of legal depts in corporations. said another way this is not a normative discussion (folks SHOULD be doing X) it is a descriptive discussion (folks ARE doing X) you're also completely missing the point. it's not on anyone to "fix" the agpl, the point is about whether the agpl as it exists i…

Your position would be eminently reasonable if this comment thread were kicked off by a blog post called "Evil Corpos are Bad Guys, They Should Accept AGPL! A Treatise Out Of Nowhere."

Corporations are free to do as they choose. They can choose not to use AGPL software. That's ok, they don't owe anyone anything (arguable but let's go with it), and I'd have no leg to stand on.

But that's not what happened here. Look at the quote that kicked off this thread:

> Shame on the people who recommend the AGPL to effectively be an OSI-approved source-available license.

> This is a grievance against the spirit of open source.

Note "Shame" and "the spirit of open source." Someone kicked off this thread painting authors of AGPL software as going against the spirit of open source for promoting a license which they know big corporations shun.

At that point it's a very different context. Remember how corporations don't owe anyone anything? Neither do free software devs. That entire comment is completely wrong, and the entire thread which followed only exists in its context. Not outside. And inside that context, it is absolutely valid to talk about the spirit of open source, to talk about what "should", etc, because that's the context introduced by the comment itself.

"Software freedom" doesn't just "enter" the discussion--it is the discussion.

Re: Bear is now source-available

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, there’s a chance it’s exactly what he said, “I didn't give it much thought at the time, but knew that I wanted the code to be available for people to learn from, and to make it easily auditable so users could validate claims I have made about the privacy and security of the platform.” … it doesn’t have to be some to be some sort of nefarious OSS altruism, it really could be, “maybe people would want to see ho…

Possibly, but that would be pretty damning. A license isn't something you should YOLO. If he is that laissez-faire about licensing the source code then what other important aspects of the project has he not given sufficient thought.

Also, something starts off as a nothingburger side project, so you make some decisions based on that. Then it develops a bit, and turns into something you care about and are able to turn into a business. What people want and expect changes over time, and a license on a codebase that is basically developed by one person, isn't a marriage.

Re: Bear is now source-available

#493
post #446
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just a level of indirection. The "substantial features" of the code need to not be directly exposed. So if you had some AGPL OCR tool you were using, you could use it, but not in a way the user sees that text. Generate audio from it and expose the sound? Probably fine.

My understanding of the theory that they're advocating is that the AGPL requires that when you modify AGPL software you modify it to provide an offer of its source. And that you can comply with that completely, run the software, and then have a proxy in front that strips that offer without violating the letter of the license. And if that theory works I think "substantial features" of the code could be directly (but f…

That would violate the license.

> However, nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or propagating a covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so.

and

> Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensors, to run, modify and propagate that work, subject to this License.

"Convey" is the key word there. You _must_ convey the license. Stripping it out, is not conveying it. Why is it automatic? Because under the AGPL, the license is a part of the work itself. You cannot remove it or modify it, without breaking the license, and thus having no right to modify it in the first place.

Re: Bear is now source-available

#494
post #493
post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding of the theory that they're advocating is that the AGPL requires that when you modify AGPL software you modify it to provide an offer of its source. And that you can comply with that completely, run the software, and then have a proxy in front that strips that offer without violating the letter of the license. And if that theory works I think "substantial features" of the code could be directly (but f…

That would violate the license. > However, nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or propagating a covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so. and > Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the origi…

> Each time you convey a covered work

You didn't convey a covered work by using it to respond to a response or anywhere else in my hypothetical - and indeed that part of the license exactly matches the GPLv3. The relevant portion of the license is rather

> Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version by providing access to the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge, through some standard or customary means of facilitating copying of software. This Corresponding Source shall include the Corresponding Source for any work covered by version 3 of the GNU General Public License that is incorporated pursuant to the following paragraph.

Re: Bear is now source-available

#495
post #494
post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would violate the license. > However, nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or propagating a covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so. and > Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the origi…

> Each time you convey a covered work You didn't convey a covered work by using it to respond to a response or anywhere else in my hypothetical - and indeed that part of the license exactly matches the GPLv3. The relevant portion of the license is rather > Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely…

So... You know a proxy is not legal... But felt the need to make me explain which facets it would cover...?

Yeah, I'm not continuing this convetsation.

Re: Bear is now source-available

#496
post #495
post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Each time you convey a covered work You didn't convey a covered work by using it to respond to a response or anywhere else in my hypothetical - and indeed that part of the license exactly matches the GPLv3. The relevant portion of the license is rather > Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely…

So... You know a proxy is not legal... But felt the need to make me explain which facets it would cover...? Yeah, I'm not continuing this convetsation.

I know nothing of the sort.

I know what section of the license is relevant to network requests, why the section of license you cited is not, and that a proxy stripping offers of source does not seem to violate the text (though it certainly violates the spirit) of the license. I do not know how a court would react to such an attempt.

I agree that I'm done with this conversation though.

Re: Bear is now source-available

#497
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rampant? Isn't that a pretty extreme response to a mistaken link?

Well, it's edited now, but previously it contained strong accusations, and doubled down even stronger after someone else pointed out they're wrong.

Ah, I was late to the scene. Thanks for the context.

Re: Bear is now source-available

#498
post #444
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but this yes-answered AI slop subtly makes no sense, it just reads comfortable to you. You should not delegate writing your opinion to the llm and even less use it to shape your opinion, this is my main takeaway from your screenshot. The AI answered your biased question in a way that pleases you, it's well known that they do this. This stuff is actually scary, and that clever people like you rely on this and d…

Fair enough, but the LLM said nothing incorrect (if it did, please point it out). Regardless, the screenshots don't even matter. You didn't seem to actually read the thread I pointed to, where a VC-backed startup founder admitted to using the AGPL to limit bigtech from using the software, a clear violation of freedom 0. They didn't choose the AGPL for altruistic reasons, rather, it's simply a part of the COSS startup…

> You didn't seem to actually read the thread I pointed to

I had mentioned it so you could see I actually read it. I had actually made the effort to load this twitter link despite the PITA it is.

> if it did, please point it out

Already pointed out my main qualm, but Brandolini's law is particularly bad with LLMs, I won't have time to debunk in details each time I run into generated text. I'd rather argue with a human being.

Let's forget this part of the discussion, it was not your point, I should have ignored it, I'm just losing patience with the LLM madness.

> effectively violating the freedoms

They don't. There's a fundamental difference between "the license permits something but someone elects to avoid benefiting from it" (someone = big corps) and "the license actually forbids something". The difference is quite major for the rest of us who are not big corps stupidly afraid of the AGPL, and we are the vast majority.

Which resolves your question:

> Why do they get to use "open source" while effectively violating the freedoms but somebody using the Elastic License, or the Sustainable Use License, or the SSPL, or the BSL, or the FSL, etc. isn't allowed to?

The reason is the Elastic License, or the Sustainable Use License, or the SSPL, or the BSL, or the FSL actually forbid running stuff for some endeavors.

AGPL doesn't. We only have big corps deciding they should stay clear from the AGPL. That's not the AGPL forbidding anything to anyone. It's not a feature of AGPL. It's a feature of big corps.

Now, that some people choose the AGPL because they know big corps stay clear from it, okay. I understand you find this veiled. Fine. But that doesn't make AGPL non open source.

Our main disagreement IMHO is that you would like that we qualify licenses depending on the intent of people using it or on the FUD corps who don't like it (and you too!) spread instead of what they intrinsically allow or not. I can't agree with this.

I'll go further. "Sustainable" and "Fair" are terrible and intentionally misleading qualifiers for these non-free licenses that are sustainable and fair only to the authors of the software under those licenses.

You just need to own the fact that you write proprietary software, and shouldn't bitch on people actually doing open source stuff and find them gotchas. They are not doing some anti-competitive stuff that's unfair to you. If you find AGPL gives unfair advantage because it gets called open source, nothing prevents you from adopting it. I suspect you won't because you know it actually gives more rights than you want to give, which also answers your question.

You guys using proprietary licenses are the ones not respecting software freedom, and you trying to call out people who actually do is quite rich. This really doesn't look great. I'd suggest you quit doing this and focus on the positive things instead.

I've asked you what harm the AGPL actually does and all you have to share is some tweet written in jest answering a low quality LLM generated text tickling the gafam. Not very convincing. Not sure you'll find deep meaning in such low quality interactions on such a low quality platform.

Stop spreading the FUD and own your choices.

Re: Bear is now source-available

#499
post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're arguing with the messenger. whether or not you buy anything is completely immaterial, what matters is the actual position of legal depts in corporations. said another way this is not a normative discussion (folks SHOULD be doing X) it is a descriptive discussion (folks ARE doing X) you're also completely missing the point. it's not on anyone to "fix" the agpl, the point is about whether the agpl as it exists i…

Your position would be eminently reasonable if this comment thread were kicked off by a blog post called "Evil Corpos are Bad Guys, They Should Accept AGPL! A Treatise Out Of Nowhere." Corporations are free to do as they choose. They can choose not to use AGPL software. That's ok, they don't owe anyone anything (arguable but let's go with it), and I'd have no leg to stand on. But that's not what happened here. Look a…

i replied to the following statement

> the corporations who disallow agpl only do so because they want to comply in a way that is against the spirit of open source

in isolation

"the spirit of open source" is not anything that can even be evaluated by any corporate legal team, much less is it anything that can be complied-with (or not-complied-with) in any kind of way

but i guess we talkin' past each other

Re: Bear is now source-available

#500
post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course proprietary software products aren’t going to bring in the GPL. They literally can’t.

They _literally_ could.

How does one keep software proprietary while leveraging the GPL (aside from the case of not distributing it)?
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