/pixelfed

Relicence Pixelfed as AGPLv3 #143

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oct2pus opened this Issue Jun 2, 2018 · 31 comments

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oct2pus commented Jun 2, 2018

I would like Pixelfed to follow in the steps of Mastodon, Pleroma, GNUSocial, Peertube and Friendica in licencing Pixelfed as APGL.

Why?

There are numerous reasons why I believe AGPL is a better licence than the MIT licence for such a project, and let me go over my thoughts on the subject.

Honesty

The AGPL licence would make instances of Pixelfed legally liable to publish their source code if they create any sort of modification, this promotes a culture of honesty present in the majority of the fediverse.

Why is Honesty Important?

One of the major reasons people originally moved to the fediverse from places like twitter is because we can't trust the twitter corporate to have our best interests in mind. One of the reasons we can do this is because the majority of the code is open source, and not only that, individual instances also must publish their source code so we can all benefit mutually from each others work and see that nothing that would breach that trust.

Consistency

Because people are forced to share implimentations, we can achieve a consistent user experience. GPL code discourages proprietary implimentations because they must be shared amongst every other developer, who can then see and impliment either a consistent protocol that works in the same way or to even directly lift code from that developer and impliment it in their own project.

Code will head upstream

This is more a directly practical example, but you have access to other implimentations that you could merge upstream. This is more the linus argument on the utility of the GPL.

here is a quote from an article on CIO last year by Linus on the GPL and linux.

Hohndel, who has been involved with the kernel for a very long time, said that during the past 25 years there have been many challenges, and one of the biggest challenges was the possibility of fragmentation. "How do we keep one single kernel?" he asked.

"I used to be worried about fragmentation, and I used to think that it was inevitable at some point," said Torvalds. “Everyone was looking at the history of Linux and comparing it with UNIX. People would say that it’s going to fail because it's going to fragment. That's what happened before, so why even bother?"

What made the difference was the license. "FSF [Free Software Foundation] and I don't have a loving relationship, but I love GPL v2," said Torvalds. "I really think the license has been one of the defining factors in the success of Linux because it enforced that you have to give back, which meant that the fragmentation has never been something that has been viable from a technical standpoint."

Open isn't Free

I left the 'moral' argument for last because I'm not certain where you stand on Free vs Open Source Software. If you do not swap you would be the only permissively licenced relevant implimentation of Activitypub. This would allow easy corporate entry into our ecosphere which is largely dominated by freedom respecting implimentations. Provided they become popular, they could impliment proprietary extensions to the protocol and cause people to race to keep up if they become a major player in the ecosphere. Your implimentation could in essence, be a trojan horse for a much worse player in the ecosphere.

Please consider my thoughts and change the licence to AGPLv3.

@oct2pus oct2pus changed the title from Swap to the AGPLv3 Licence to Relicence Pixelfed as AGPLv3 Jun 2, 2018

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EliotBerriot Jun 2, 2018

Hi @oct2pus, and thank you for explaining the issue this carefully. I'm not related to PixelFed at all, but I run Funkwhale (it's another project that I run that is BSD-licensed), your arguments make a lot of sense and I wanted to thank you. I think I will consider Funkwhale's licence to AGPL soon.

EliotBerriot commented Jun 2, 2018

Hi @oct2pus, and thank you for explaining the issue this carefully. I'm not related to PixelFed at all, but I run Funkwhale (it's another project that I run that is BSD-licensed), your arguments make a lot of sense and I wanted to thank you. I think I will consider Funkwhale's licence to AGPL soon.
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oct2pus Jun 2, 2018

Well at least I did one good thing today! 😃

oct2pus commented Jun 2, 2018

Well at least I did one good thing today! 😃
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MrPetovan Jun 2, 2018

I approve, and https://github.com/friendica/friendica I’m working on is under the AGPLv3 as well.

MrPetovan commented Jun 2, 2018

I approve, and https://github.com/friendica/friendica I’m working on is under the AGPLv3 as well.
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nipos Jun 2, 2018

I agree and my Mastodon client (https://github.com/halcyon-suite/halcyon) is AGPL 3.0 too.

nipos commented Jun 2, 2018

I agree and my Mastodon client (https://github.com/halcyon-suite/halcyon) is AGPL 3.0 too.
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yabirgb Jun 2, 2018

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Zinat is AGPL too https://github.com/yabirgb/zinat
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yabirgb commented Jun 2, 2018

Zinat is AGPL too https://github.com/yabirgb/zinat

@dansup dansup self-assigned this Jun 2, 2018

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dansup Jun 2, 2018

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@oct2pus Hello, thank you for your suggestion. I will work on this.
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dansup commented Jun 2, 2018

@oct2pus Hello, thank you for your suggestion. I will work on this.
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BrainBlasted Jun 3, 2018

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@dansup: at this point, you will need to get permission from all 22 contributors to the code to relicense it. I support changing to AGPL, so good luck 👍
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BrainBlasted commented Jun 3, 2018

@dansup: at this point, you will need to get permission from all 22 contributors to the code to relicense it. I support changing to AGPL, so good luck 👍
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@dansup - "LGTM"
@j1t - "I'm fine with AGPL"
@hellcp - "Do it!"
@imbsky - "I concur."
@m4sk1n - "You can relicense, but I have nothing against MIT."
@OpenAlgeria - "Do it!"
@moritzheiber - "I concur."
@Grazouillis - "It's ok"
@trwnh - Yes.
@Quenty31 - "I'm okay with" (https://framapiaf.org/@Quenti/100147924679131147)
@moshpirit - "Sure!"
@Nouutilizaire
@Ahmad-Amsyar - "I agree, this project has to be set free"
@swedneck - "AGPL is nice, and i'll license my translation under whatever is needed as well."
@timmyrs - "I'm fine with it too. My translation is licensed under whatever license you want."
@DeadSuperHero - "I concur."
@Zatnosk - "I support using AGPL for this project and projects like it."
@neilalexander - "No objections here."
@kpcyrd - "I agree with re-licensing to AGPLv3 or later"
@iah - "Nothing to object about."
@yabirgb - "No problems here"
@qwazix - "I agree and actually prefer AGPL."
@xmgz - "I agree with this change."

Any objections?
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trwnh commented Jun 3, 2018 •
edited by dansup
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  • @trwnh trwnh edited Jun 4, 2018
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  • @trwnh trwnh edited Jun 3, 2018
  • @trwnh trwnh created Jun 3, 2018

@dansup - "LGTM"
@j1t - "I'm fine with AGPL"
@hellcp - "Do it!"
@imbsky - "I concur."
@m4sk1n - "You can relicense, but I have nothing against MIT."
@OpenAlgeria - "Do it!"
@moritzheiber - "I concur."
@Grazouillis - "It's ok"
@trwnh - Yes.
@Quenty31 - "I'm okay with" (https://framapiaf.org/@Quenti/100147924679131147)
@moshpirit - "Sure!"
@Nouutilizaire
@Ahmad-Amsyar - "I agree, this project has to be set free"
@swedneck - "AGPL is nice, and i'll license my translation under whatever is needed as well."
@timmyrs - "I'm fine with it too. My translation is licensed under whatever license you want."
@DeadSuperHero - "I concur."
@Zatnosk - "I support using AGPL for this project and projects like it."
@neilalexander - "No objections here."
@kpcyrd - "I agree with re-licensing to AGPLv3 or later"
@iah - "Nothing to object about."
@yabirgb - "No problems here"
@qwazix - "I agree and actually prefer AGPL."
@xmgz - "I agree with this change."

Any objections?
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I concur.
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moritzheiber commented Jun 3, 2018

I concur.
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DeadSuperHero Jun 3, 2018

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I concur.
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DeadSuperHero commented Jun 3, 2018

I concur.
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Ahmad-Amsyar Jun 3, 2018

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I agree, this project has to be set free all of us can benefit from this project.
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Ahmad-Amsyar commented Jun 3, 2018

I agree, this project has to be set free all of us can benefit from this project.
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neilalexander Jun 3, 2018

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No objections here.
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neilalexander commented Jun 3, 2018

No objections here.
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qwazix commented Jun 3, 2018

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moshpirit Jun 3, 2018

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Sure! No problem :)

Thanks for the mentions!
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moshpirit commented Jun 3, 2018

Sure! No problem :)

Thanks for the mentions!
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hellcp Jun 3, 2018

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Do it!
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hellcp commented Jun 3, 2018

Do it!
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kpcyrd Jun 3, 2018

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I agree with re-licensing to AGPLv3 or later
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kpcyrd commented Jun 3, 2018

I agree with re-licensing to AGPLv3 or later
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iah Jun 3, 2018

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Nothing to object about.
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iah commented Jun 3, 2018

Nothing to object about.
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xmgz Jun 3, 2018

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no problem, I agree with this change.

thanks @oct2pus for your proposal and explaining the reasons behind it
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xmgz commented Jun 3, 2018

no problem, I agree with this change.

thanks @oct2pus for your proposal and explaining the reasons behind it
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No problems here
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yabirgb commented Jun 3, 2018

No problems here
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oct2pus Jun 3, 2018

You're welcome, I'm surprised at the wonderful response I've received for it! Two additional projects (@EliotBerriot's FunkWhale and Unascribe's Ionch) at least plan on attempting an AGPLv3 conversion, so I'm glad I took an hour out to try and straighten out my thoughts!

oct2pus commented Jun 3, 2018

You're welcome, I'm surprised at the wonderful response I've received for it! Two additional projects (@EliotBerriot's FunkWhale and Unascribe's Ionch) at least plan on attempting an AGPLv3 conversion, so I'm glad I took an hour out to try and straighten out my thoughts!
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m4sk1n Jun 3, 2018

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You can relicense, but I have nothing against MIT.
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m4sk1n commented Jun 3, 2018

You can relicense, but I have nothing against MIT.
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I'm fine with it too. My translation is licensed under whatever license you want.
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timmyrs commented Jun 3, 2018

I'm fine with it too. My translation is licensed under whatever license you want.
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ghost Jun 3, 2018

AGPL is nice, and i'll license my translation under whatever is needed as well.

ghost commented Jun 3, 2018

AGPL is nice, and i'll license my translation under whatever is needed as well.
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It's ok :)
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Grazouillis commented Jun 3, 2018

It's ok :)
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I concur.
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imbsky commented Jun 3, 2018

I concur.
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Zatnosk Jun 4, 2018

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I support using AGPL for this project and projects like it.
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Zatnosk commented Jun 4, 2018

I support using AGPL for this project and projects like it.
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picsi Jun 4, 2018

I contributed to translation here and I support the change to "AGPL or later".

picsi commented Jun 4, 2018 •
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I contributed to translation here and I support the change to "AGPL or later".
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dansup Jun 4, 2018

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LGTM 👍
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dansup commented Jun 4, 2018

LGTM 👍
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That just leaves

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trwnh commented Jun 4, 2018 •
edited by dansup
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That just leaves

@Nouutilizaire

@dansup dansup added work in progress 🚨priority - critical labels Jun 4, 2018

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Do it!👍
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OpenAlgeria commented Jun 4, 2018

Do it!👍
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I'm fine with AGPL
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j1t commented Jun 4, 2018

I'm fine with AGPL

@dansup dansup referenced this issue Jun 5, 2018

Merged

Relicense from MIT to AGPL #198

@dansup dansup closed this in #198 Jun 5, 2018

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