One thing I've been thinking about lately - does the proliferation of web services harm free software?
In a way, no - a lot of web applications are actually based on free software.
However, a large part of human/computer interaction is moving from programs running on your local machine to programs running on an internet server.
And this means that those offering those services are not actually distributing or releasing software - in the case of CMS' and Web servers, they are only *using* it, and in the case of more specific web services, letting people use them as a *service* - in both case incurring no "redistribution" obligations under e.g. the GPL.
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?
best regards
Carsten Agger, Aarhus, Denmark