Facebook was created using PHP and MySQL , free software. They like Google
are not required to release their code because they do not deliver the
program, they provide a service. And the above is possible , because they
use a license that allows, designed for a time when software was
distributed , for that reason it was created by the FSF a new version of
the GPL , the GNU Affero General Public License
What we should do is encourage students to license their work , free
software works with that license.
The site of the FSF argues:
" That Developers use our General Public Licenses protect your rights with
two steps : ( 1) assert copyright on the software , and (2) offer you this
License Which Gives You legal permission to copy , distribute and / or
modify the software.
A secondary benefit of defending all users ' freedom Is that improvements
made in alternate versions of the program , If They receive Widespread
use , Become available for other developers to Incorporate. Many developers
of free software are heartened and Encouraged by the Resulting
cooperation. However
, in the case of software used on network servers , This May result fail to
come about. The GNU General Public License Permits making a modified
version and letting the public access it on a server without ever releasing
its source code to the public .
The GNU Affero General Public License is designed específicamente to Ensure
That , in Such cases , the modified source code available to the community
Becomes . It Requires the operator of a network server to Provide the
source code of the modified version running there to the users of That
server. THEREFORE , public use of a modified version , on a publicly
accessible server, Gives the public access to the source code of the
modified version . "
Source:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html
Best regards,
Fernando
2013/11/19 Mina Theofilatou <theoth(a)otenet.gr>
Amir I fully understand your arguments... but I see a
conflict of
interest here: they're encouraging students to write open code on the one
hand, and keeping their own code proprietary on the other. Same with Google
I guess.
I can also see a cheap and dishonest recruiting process going on here...
not to mention the semantics of the #1 proprietary social networking
platform in the world associating its name with Opensource and established
Universities. It's a win-win (to the nth power!) situation for Facebook.
And finally: how would we volunteers at Wikimedia feel if Facebook did the
same thing officially and "out in the open" (i.e. earning CSR credits) with
us?
Tyson Henry has added an interesting comment on the page (last one as of
now)... what do you think?
Mina
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Amir E. Aharoni <amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il>
*To:* Wikimedia Education <education(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
*Sent:* Tuesday, November 19, 2013 10:00 AM
*Subject:* Re: [Wikimedia Education] An alarming piece of news: Facebook
teams with opensource???
Google has been doing similar things for years with Google Summer of
Code. So did other organizations.
Free software is not necessarily non-commercial.
The whole point of Free Software is that everybody should be allowed to do
pretty much everything. It cannot and should not be prohibited. Free
software may, however, need to adapt to contributions from commercial
organizations. When Google tried a few years ago to pay people to fill
Wikipedias in languages of India with auto-translated articles, it was a
big failure, because the editors community rejected it. When PR companies
are filling Wikipedia articles in different with poorly sourced and biased
information about their clients, it is also frequently rejected and deleted.
A different issue is constructive editing for money or for prizes. Some
countries held article writing contests with prizes, and though there was
some opposition to them, they didn't hurt the projects in the long run,
especially if they already had established communities of volunteer editors
at the time of the contest. In any case, very few articles are usually
written in such contests. It's unlikely at this point that Wikipedia in any
language will be overwhelmed with many thousands of articles written for
money, although this may change in the future. Again, we cannot and should
not prohibit it, but we may want to think about how we shall adapt
ourselves to it.
--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
2013/11/19 Mina Theofilatou <theoth(a)otenet.gr>
Hello all
I just wanted to share a link that I just found. It seems that Facebook
is running a campaign to encourage Computer Science students to earn
academic credits by contributing to opensource projects:
http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/13/facebook-partners-with-22-universities-to…
#!
I don't think Facebook should be allowed to do this. Imagine Facebook
tried to pry its way into Wikimedia: I would expect all of us to revolt. A
for-profit organization taking advantage of non-profit ideals??? MAKING
PROFIT on non-profit? Would they even consider converting THEIR project
into an open-source one? Of course not. Don't Mozilla and other Open Source
Projects have ways of campaigning to attract CompSci students in their own
organisations? Why does Facebook have to be the middleman? I find it
revolting... if this is their idea of corporate social responsibility, I'll
have to find away to stop using Facebook altogether in reply.
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--
Fernando da Rosa
fedaro(a)fedaro.info
fernando.darosa(a)gmail.com
http://www.fedaro.info