@Rush Wait, I thought it's always been licensed under the #GPL since the 90s? I mean there's a reason #Doom has been available in #Debian for a long time... (Though only the engine, not the assets which are proprietary) :sagume_think:
We’re seeking input from #FOSS maintainers as we design a fellowship program pilot. We want to test a support mechanism that addresses structural issues in the FOSS ecosystem, and support maintainers who work on open digital infrastructure in the public interest.
@sovtechfund Responded + boosted. It sounds like a very positive initiative, especially if it means that developers working for the common good can be afforded some stability and the head-space to concentrate on their work instead of worrying about everyday survival.
A student can't afford to pay the $8 per month for #Obsidian sync, so builds a #FOSS alternative. Then posts to HN and says "I probably violate ToS, so will take down the repo if asked".
Then the Obsidian CEO replies. Explains they aren't VC-funded and the $8 bucks subscription keeps the light on. Applauds the work of the student, points to other open ways that content sync can be handled and gives advice "if you rename, there's no ToS problem". 👍
@edafe@kkarhan@pavelzinoviev@smallcircles@obsidian Obsidian would be a good use case for the BUSL. Company/developers go under or suddenly disappear? Code becomes GPL/MPL.
Until then, proprietary. That'd cover all the bases as part of succession planning.
When anyone spends their resources making something and then gives it away for free they should be greeted firstly with gratitude. They should be greeted secondly with gratitude. They should be greeted lastly with gratitude.
Too much #FOSS#OpenSource community rage and contributor burnout stems from a strange forgetfulness that no one has to contribute anything this way. It's always a wonder. Let's chill out and be a little more kind and a lot more grateful.
@ryangorley I feel like this problem stems from the proliferation of "free" products everywhere, from companies such as Google. For those products, you complain, you get results.
To most people, FOSS and open source are not really any different to the commercialised "free" products, as at the end of the day they're not paying anything, so they have the same expectations for both.
My old e-reader had some problems and needed to be replaced. I ended up exploring the hell that is DRM (copy protection) on e-books and tried to break the restraints so I can read my own legally acquired books with FOSS software. I wrote a blog post on it that describes my frustrations (another ideological rant) but hopefully also helps others in a similar position with some practical guidance: https://proycon.anaproy.nl/posts/do-not-restrict-me/
@handle Thanks. Interesting, I'll have to give that a read! I agree there is a lot that needs to be fixed regarding copyright law and intellectual property (especially patent law) in general, as it all has gone way too far in serving the primarily the financial interests of big producers/publishers and inhibiting proper competition and creativity (remix culture should be promoted).
@cnx A standalone CLI tool is more appealing to me than integration into Calibre. I like my software to do one thing only and to do it well ;) I'm generally skeptical of GUIs.
I'll have to experiment with libgourou and perhaps update my post so others can benefit too.
NLnet Foundation is looking for a Rust developer/software engineer for our office in Amsterdam.
You will be responsible for the development and operation of the (Rust based) backend through which we administer our open source grant programmes, and which integrates with our website.
NLnet financially supports organisations and people who work on free and open source projects from around the world on all layers of internet technology.
Reminder: The Sovereign Tech Fund is asking #FOSS maintainers for input as we design the pilot program for a paid fellowship to support critical digital infrastructure. Help us by sharing this with maintainers you know!
The last day to submit a response is Sunday, 7 April 2024.
If you see the AGPL licenses on my free and open source work and you think “damn you, I can’t use this to enrich myself or my corporation without sharing back what I’ve built on top of what you’ve freely shared and thus contribute to cultivating a healthy commons where others might enjoy the same benefits from my work that I want to obtain from yours” (a) you really have long-winded thoughts and (b) well, you already see the flaw in your reasoning.
(Remember this whenever anyone complains about ‘the viral nature of GPL’ or sings praises for (neo)’liberal’ licenses like MIT and BSD that enable corporations to partake of the free labour of others and enclose the commons.)
@aral Legal at work only just seems to have noticed that we're not allowed to steal OSS and so they're on a mission to purge all references to AGPL libraries.
I'm in a team where we've never been much for outside libraries but have also never had active intrusion by way of security scans and Git repo monitoring. It's turning into a huge pain in the ass to prove we're essentially compliant by default.
@gamingonlinux
LOL omg I remember the first version... and how I had to fight motion sickness at first, until I adapted. What a trip that game was, full 3d motion!!
What would happen if people went back to services such as Gopher? at least as part of this.l Self hosting on Raspberry Pi or similar devices should be viable in 2023
The organizers of @pycon have given community organizers a massive gift 🎁
Let's not squander it!
A sold out#PyConUS 2024 proved that even large events can prioritize safety and inclusion for caregivers and immunocompromised people by way of requiring masks, and gathering venue data to calibrate their policy from year-to-year. Smaller events have proven it's possible at that scale, too.
Now is the time for at least one other large event to step up.
@yatil@anniegreens Ahhh I'm so happy to see XOXO's policy here! I've been bummed to see the dearth of robust Health & Safety practices at tech events in Europe.
PyCon IT and FOSS Backstage were good standouts, but have been relaxing their measures more than I would.
It may not be a relevant ecosystem for you (yet?), but I am pleased to report that Matrix Conf (Sept 19-22 in Berlin) will be raising the bar!
Can anyone in the whole world submit?
...to have a "European dimension"... but you are from elsewhere? Don't despair: there are other ways too... A significant contribution towards the vision of the Next Generation Internet initiative also qualifies. What is good for the whole open internet also benefits Europe, after all. Or put differently: we are open to talent from far and wide to deliver the ambitions of the NGI. ...
@jeffcliff No, that's not the current version. The current version of LibreOffice is 7.6. As the post to which you're replying already says, from the next major release (in February) we're moving to a "year.month" version scheme – like many other projects use – to make it clear to users how old/new their software is.
#DeutscheBahn so geht das nicht. ihr habt #Digitalisierung falsch verstanden. sie bedeutet nicht zwang und überwachung, sondern zusätzliche optionen und mehr #freiheit. meine forderungen:
@slink@XR_Nuernberg_sunny2 Mit der Plastikkarte BC100 darf man seit Beginn des Jahres nicht mehr ÖPNV fahren. Dafür braucht man jetzt auch die App. Die BahnBonus-Vorteile die schon Teil von BahnComfort waren wurden ja immerhin bis zum Ende der Gültigkeit der Plastikkarte auch ohne App weitergewährt, beim ÖPNV sind auch bestehenden Karten bettoffen. Da steht dann auf der Plastikkarte "inkl. Deutschland-Tickt", aber zur Nutzung braucht es die Tracking-App.
"The output from an LLM is a derivative work of the data used to train the LLM.
If we fail to recognise this, or are unable to uphold this in law, copyright (and copyleft on which it depends) is dead. Copyright will still be used against us by corporations, but its utility to FOSS to preserve freedom is gone."
@mishari "We show an adversary can extract gigabytes of training data from open-source language models like Pythia or GPT-Neo, semi-open models like LLaMA or Falcon, and closed models like ChatGPT"
