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 <[email protected]> > 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 <[email protected]> > *To:* Wikimedia Education <[email protected]> > *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 <[email protected]> > >> 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-give-compsci-students-academic-credit-for-open-source-projects/ >> #! >> >> 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. >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Education mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education >> >> > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Education mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education > > > _______________________________________________ > Education mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education > > -- -- Fernando da Rosa [email protected] [email protected] http://www.fedaro.info
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