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1. smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊) (smallcircles@social.coop)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Jan-2023 16:33:11 JST smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

   • Darius Kazemi

   There is talk about Embrace, Extend, Extinguish (#EEE) by corporations entering the #Fediverse and how to protect against that.

   #FOSS licenses are mentioned, like #AGPL. But how much protection does that offer, really? When a corporation might throw a hundred person product development team and a couple million bucks to just recreating someone's one-person project's innovations?

   https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/best-license-for-open-source-fedi-apps/2876/5

   I recommend watching @darius #ActivityPub conference talk:

   https://conf.tube/w/oPQjje8j6qBFj7NSQ9xCKj

   • smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊) (smallcircles@social.coop)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Jan-2023 16:32:59 JST smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

     in reply to

     • Aral Balkan
     • Laura Kalbag
     • Neil Brown

     @neil

     Besides things mentioned by Darius in the video hinting to #Fediverse creating its own path as a grassroots movement, the efforts of @aral and @laura wrt #SmallTech are interesting in this regard.

     Not only does applying the https://small-tech.org principles lead to apps less attractive for monetization by #BigTech, also the technology base makes it easier for small businesses to make an entry and earn sustainable (and reasonable + fair) income.

   • Neil Brown (neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Jan-2023 16:33:00 JST Neil Brown

     in reply to

     @smallcircles Indeed. Like all(?) FOSS licences, it is limited by the scope of underlying copyright law. Want to do something which isn’t restricted by copyright? No need to worry about the licensing terms. Overall, I think that’s a good thing, and I’d like to see many more limits on copyright, but that would also have the effect of making it easier for (some) commercial orgs too.

     I like GNU AGPL, but it is not a magic shield.

     Aral Balkan repeated this.
   • smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊) (smallcircles@social.coop)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Jan-2023 16:33:04 JST smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

     in reply to

     • Neil Brown

     @neil for sure!

     I am all for using #AGPL but thinking it is just one small bit of protection. Not nearlyas much as people seem to think it provides.

     It offers no guarantees whatsoever with corporate competitors able to throw so much weight in the game should our ecosystem have piqued their interest.

     There's app types and features that are less attractive for monetization. If you are a #FOSS dev that wants to dabble in #ActivityPub and not see your work outcompeted, you may wanna focus there.

   • Neil Brown (neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Jan-2023 16:33:05 JST Neil Brown

     in reply to

     @smallcircles I guess we can’t have it both ways? If we want copyright limited enough so that we can write our own, FOSS, alternatives to existing software, or make use of common / open interfaces and standards / protocols, it must hold true that commercial orgs can do exactly the same in respect of successful FOSS projects, I’d have thought.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Jan-2023 16:35:01 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Laura Kalbag
     • Neil Brown

     @smallcircles @neil @laura 💕