"Carsten Agger" agger@c.dk writes:
This means that even when more and more free software becomes available, people might still become increasingly obliged to use non-free software through the web, or to use free software as web applications under conditions where the four freedoms don't apply. I'm sure the question isn't new and others could state it much more eloquently, but ...
is the an answer, and which would be the right one?
The question isn't that new. There even exists a license for this question, the Affero GPL[0]. The FSF currently works the GNU Affero GPLv3[1] which will be compatible to GPLv3.
Simplified the Affero GPL says that if you use Free Software licensed under the Affero GPL as a web service you have to give all users of this service a copy of the source code and all rights defined by the Affero GPL. Basically it extends "distribute" to "offering web services".
I think the crucial point is that if you use such a web service ultimately you don't know what software runs on the server and what will happen to your data. So whether you will get a copy of the source code or not, you become dependent on the service provider and lose control over your computing.
Personally i would avoid using web services whenever it is feasible and prefer to use software that runs on my own computer so that i have the full control over it.
[0] http://www.affero.org/oagpl.html [1] http://gplv3.fsf.org/agplv3-dd1-guide.html