Free Software on the Brave New Web

Much software moves to the web (software as a service, as a remotely ran web-application). The web is good as it makes many things possible that are not possible on the desktop. Still we think there should be Freedom on the Web.

The GPL, whether version 2 or 3 only grants Freedoms when one runs the software on one’s own machine. This is a problem on the web, as because of this there the GPL effectively is a BSD-style license from a normal user’s perspective.

So we do our best to create a Free Web. Where free means having Stallman's four freedoms on 3 levels.

• Software: the freedoms to view the sourcecode (1), to modify it (2), to share it with others (3), and to share modified versions (4).
• Data: the freedom to see your data (1), to update it (2), to share it with others (3), and to publish changed versions (4).
• Community: the freedom of the community to access it's web-resources (1), to modify it's aims, web- resources and practices (2), to determine who can join it (3), and to proceed together (4).

These 12 (3 * 4) freedoms should guarantee that individuals, communities and sub-groups can always take their data, and the application(s) it needs, determine their collective future & practices, resp. have an exodus, and start a new community.

Also see our blog-post on  this