[Committee-d] GPLv3 Last Call - Suggestions for AGPLv3

[rufo guerreschi]

Dear committee-D members,

Here is the current Affero clause text from the GPLv3 Last Call:
...
13. Use with the GNU Affero General Public License.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, you have  
permission to link any covered work with a work licensed under  
version 3 (or any later version published by the Free Software  
Foundation) of the GNU Affero General Public License, and to convey  
the resulting combination. The terms of this License will continue to  
apply to your covered work but will not apply to the work with which  
it is linked, which will remain governed by the GNU Affero General  
Public License.
...

it is very nice that the clause is mentioning a "any later version",  
as it will give an opportunity to FSF to fix, update or extenbd the  
Affero without creating a new version of GNU GPL.

Why is it mentioning a version 3?
What happened to 2? Is 2 going to be a drafty version to pass around  
in order to make v3 really kickass? That would be a nice move I think.

I still think though that 3 problems are stil unaddressed by this  
license:
1.  For its application to privacy-sensitive telematic applications,  
there is no way for the user to verify that the software they are  
downloading from the provided link is the software that is running  
there and then.
2. It may be a good idea to allow Affero GPLv3 derivatives developers  
to restrict the freedom to create further derivatives for, say, 6  
months, or 12 months. That would enable clients and software  
visionaries to safely invest substantial funds in a new software  
idea, knowing that they can maintain a bit of competitive advantage  
for a while. Of course, all users would have from day 1 the ability  
to download and see all code.
3. Even if the user downloads the code of the Affero GPL application,  
they still do not have the right (nor the means of course) to  
download all other software running on the same machine or in the  
machines where a database or webserver or anything else is running.  
The user does not have the right (nor the means) to download code  
that may, in many circumstances, intereact with the Affero GPLed code  
at run time.

We try to address all three of these problems not through a license,  
but through a Code Access Policies and Download Agreements. Maybe  
some inspiration could come from it on how to have AGPLv3 address  
those problems.

PS
Shouldn't we be organizing so that future versions of of the GNU GPL  
and Affero GPL be defined by "democratically"-elected software  
freedom seekers and licensing experts? I believe so, but only if such  
election happens on a striclty one-FLOSS-use one-vote.

Cheers,

If you are near Rome on June 9th, come and talk about this stuff with  
at:
http://www.telematicsfreedom.org/upcoming-events/

------------------------------
Rufo Guerreschi
rufo at guerreschi.org
cell/sms +393357545620
skype: rguerreschi
www.telematicsfreedom.org



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