Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Project

[cool-RR]

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 3:55 PM, cool-RR <cool-rr@cool-rr.com> wrote:

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 2:04 PM, Jason Self <jason@bluehome.net> wrote:

dotcommon@autistici.org wrote ..

> i have visited http://librelist.com/ and i had the same impact: a non-free
> SAAS implementation
> this was because i could not find neither any free software license
> (GPLv3?) specification about the mailing software run by librelist.com,
> nor
> any source code of the mailing software to download, nor any website free
> software license (AGPL?) specification...

The availability (or lack) source code definitely goes to the question of
whether it's free software or not (and I hope it is, because otherwise the
server operator has lost their freedom), but whether it's free software for the
/user/ of that server doesn't decide whether it's SaaS or not [2].

cool-rr@cool-rr.com wrote ..

> I am not sure what you mean by saying "I suspect this is a non-free SaaS
> implementation". Are you suspecting that Librelist is not open-source?

No -- They're talking about something called Software As A Service (SaaS.) This
is a new issue our community is grappling with. Please see the links at [1] and
[2] for more information.

Also, something to be aware of: Our community is focused on software freedo, not
"open source." Please read [3]. Please use the "free software" when referring to
software which has the four freedoms. :)

[1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html
[2] http://aws.bluehome.net/saas.html
[2] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

Thanks you, Jason and al3xu5 for raising these issues. I didn't notice that the Librelist site doesn't link to the code and the license, though I'm quite sure it's all FOSS. This looks like a mistake on Librelist's part. I've asked on the mailing list for Librelist and when I have answers I will post them here.

Ram.

Okay, I got some info:

The development center for Librelist is http://support.librelist.com (Using dot com because of temporary error with their DNS.)

The link from the main Librelist to the support/development site is not obvious enough, and I notified them about this, thanks.

The source is available from there.

The license is GPLv3.

This is the privacy policy: "The database and logs are never shared.  Archives and lists are fully open.  If you don't want people to know you are subscribed don't send email."

Of course, this needs to be easily available from the website, and I told them that.

Did I answer all your questions?

Ram.