<quote who="Patrick Anderson" date="Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 12:51:59PM -0600"> > Sorry to chime in so late, but I have a question/concern about using > the word 'Network'. > > What about a situation where the user is utilizing the code or data > stored on a machine that they do not own, but where they are sitting > at that same terminal? > > For instance, I've thought of a "Free as in Freedom" cafe where > customers could rent time on computers to use Free Software or rent a > mini-theatre room where they could watch movies that are under a > license permitting such performances.
There's a slippery slope argument here that I think you want to avoid. If you ask to use my computer for 5 minutes, it seems potentially onerous -- and unreasonable -- that we treat this the same as distribution or online use. The impact on user freedom is about the role, degree, and amount of a user's experience that is framed by a particular technology. Most of technologies I can think of that I might be very worried about are either distributed and possessed or used over a computer network. I can think of some others (like Internet cafes that you allude to) but I can't see how distributing source code and data for the people most affected by these systems would help either user or developer freedom. Maybe I just need to near a more threshed out example. Regards, Mako -- Benjamin Mako Hill [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mako.cc/ Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society is free to use the results. --GNU Manifesto
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