@gabek@social.gabekangas.com

gabek

@gabek@social.gabekangas.com

My name is Gabe and I'm here to say, I'm rockin' on the mic every two or three days.

I'm the maintainer and primary developer of #Owncast. I'm generally always happy to talk to you about the project, it means a lot to me.

I'm not on Mastodon, I'm on the Fediverse. So are you.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

gabek, to random

The number of words that people self-censor in YouTube videos is out of control. I've more than once watched a video where a sentence was incomprehensible because so many words were removed.

"Tim <mute> with <mute> because of <mute> and their <mute>. Unfortunately, <mute> <mute>."

I hope those YouTubers are enjoying their "freedom" of "working for themselves" and "not having to answer to others" when making content they care about.

docpop, to SanFrancisco
@docpop@mastodon.social avatar

are playing at Kilowatt Bar in tonight and tomorrow. Details here: https://kilowattbar.com/events

gabek,

@jwz @docpop I had no idea. I wouldn’t have guessed that one. Ugh.

CenDemTech, to random
@CenDemTech@techpolicy.social avatar

REGISTER NOW: CDT’s @gabek is joining Lisa Austin, Swati Srivastava, & Jeff Hall for a panel on “Data Access and Social Media Research” for @bkc's “Platforms and the Right to Information” workshop on May 2. Details below: https://cdt.org/event/platforms-and-the-right-to-information/

gabek,

@CenDemTech @bkc I have no idea what you're talking about.

Aphrodite, to Israel
@Aphrodite@chaos.social avatar

I’m getting some informal reports that users in are no longer able to access @signalapp and @matrix.

Anyone else have any info about this?

gabek,

@josh @Aphrodite @matrix Isn't the beauty of Matrix is it's decentralized? There's no way to block every Matrix server, I'm curious what's going on there.

jimniels, to random
@jimniels@mastodon.social avatar

One thing about the web is that it requires you relinquish control.

If you're a government, you can't control the flow of information.

If you're a designer, you can't control the exact placement of pixels.

If you're a developer, you can't control how content will flex and bend across devices, inputs, etc.

If you want to work with the web, give up the idea of control and your expectations will be properly set from the outset (which helps you avoid disappointment and/or disillusionment).

gabek,

@jimniels The web, or the internet? Sounds like the internet to me!

gabek, to random

I go back and read this article every once in a while. It's literally the only thing of value TechCrunch has ever published.

9 years ago Jon Evans wrote about the internet being a space for misfits and curiosity:

"...the pretty people are taking over, flooding out of top-tier universities with MBAs and social graces and carefully coiffed hair, shouldering the misfits and weirdos out of the way"

"It’s all too easy to imagine the American tech industry in ten years as a new Wall Street, a giant machine built largely to siphon yet more power and privilege up to people who already have too much."

https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/

jalcine, to random
@jalcine@todon.eu avatar

https://listen.plex.tv/track/5d07e27d403c64029063d268?source=447303d987a795cf7d5eaae23cc88eaaf376be2e&key=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F18529&parentGuid=5d07c2f7403c640290927997&grandparentGuid=5d07bbfd403c6402904a677b&accountID=26134925&username=jalcine

gabek,

@jalcine @JoeGrowling I didn’t know about those links until I saw Jacky posting them a couple weeks ago. So, then I had to build automation to create those links that get added to my Fediverse profile.

aral, to SmallWeb
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

I’ve been looking for an ngrok alternative for a while now that’s (a) affordable (b) easy to use and (c) works with Kitten¹. Today, after testing a bunch of them again and getting fed up, I found LocalXpose that checks all the boxes.

I signed Small Technology Foundation up as an affiliate so if you use this link to check it out, we’ll get 40% of your $6/mo pro account fee should you subscribe:

https://localxpose.io/?via=kitten

¹ https://codeberg.org/kitten/app

gabek,

@aral Just want to throw this in, as it’s something I use myself: http://serveo.net/ since it’s free, convenient, and uses existing tooling. But it’s less turnkey.

gabek, to random

I was passed a blog post by @williampietri from the Linux Foundation stating they can help open source projects with this exact issue, of community held trademarks, and to contact them. So I filled out a form on their website, and hopefully, I hear back. So at least there might be some path forward. Previously, I didn't know who to talk to.

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/open-source-communities-and-trademarks-a-reprise

gabek, to random

I noticed the company who wanted to add their service directly into Owncast, and I said no, started releasing their own version of Owncast with their own changes in it to support this use case.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. It's kind of a fork, but it's really just another release of Owncast by somebody else. They're releasing something called Owncast with functionality and decisions that have nothing to do with the real Owncast. It specifically says stuff like "Owncast does X", and Owncast does not do X, and will never do X. Only their changes do X.

I fear this may confuse people. If something goes wrong with their version of the software, people are going to ask me for support, and might make the real Owncast look bad. But I don't know if this is wrong, or if this is completely acceptable. It's open source, and the name "Owncast" isn't owned by anybody, as Owncast is an open source project, not a company. So I guess they have the right to do whatever they want and call it Owncast.

But it feels wrong, and it seems like really bad things could come of this.

gabek,

@lukem Mastodon is a company, though. That's the difference. The company holds the trademarks and IP. I have no equivalent of that. I could register it all to myself, but then it's not an open project anymore, it's something I, personally, own.

gabek,

@darnell The trademark part is something I've never been able to figure out. I've asked around, but nobody has been able to answer it for me. Who owns a trademark for an open source project? Mastodon is a company, they own their trademark. Owncast is not a company, it's not a legal entity. It can't own anything.

gabek,

@operationpuppet It's not shortcomings they're calling out, they're literally adding themselves into the product themselves and then shipping it out.

gabek,

@danyork @lukem That's where I've never been able to figure it out. How does an open source project own a trademark? I don't think it can. It has to become a company. Owncast isn't a company. And it's certainly not a non-profit. A non-profit is a very specific thing. I just don't have any answers.

gabek,

@IzzyOnDroid @darnell I completely understand the need for a trademark. But I completely do not understand who can hold the trademark for an open source project. Wordpress and Firefox are run by companies. Those companies hold those trademarks. Owncast is not a company.

gabek,

@IzzyOnDroid @darnell A person absolutely should. But Owncast isn't a person, it's an open source project. A single person shouldn't hold all of its assets.

gabek,

@IzzyOnDroid @darnell That solution is a non-starter.

gabek,

@williampietri @darnell Copyright with open source is pretty straightforward. But there's no equivalent for ownership of the name, the logo, the domains, etc etc etc unless you start a company around it. There must be a better answer, I just don't know what every other project does, and I've been asking for years and been unable to find an answer.

gabek,

@williampietri @darnell I don't own the copyright, the "Owncast contributors" / the project collectively owns the copyright of authored code. It's not a Gabe thing, it's an Owncast thing.

I don't want to personally, as an individual, be the sole legal owner. That's against the spirit of an open source project. I don't want to create a corporate entity, Owncast is not a corporation. And I don't understand the idea of a"sponsor", but if that means handing off/selling ownership of Owncast to a megacorp, well... that sounds horrible.

Thanks for sharing that article, I'm checking it out.

gabek,

@williampietri Oh, like a fiscal sponsor!? Now I get what you mean, I thought you meant like a parent company. The Open Source Collective is Owncast's fiscal sponsor already. I'll reach out to them, thanks!

gabek,

@vorlon @IzzyOnDroid @darnell No, the question is who holds trademarks for projects that are not legal entities such as open source projects? Now I'm getting answers, I've never heard of the SPI or the Software Freedom Conservancy before. This is exactly what I was looking for.

It's not that I don't want to set up an entity, it's it would be completely inappropriate to do so for a community run open source project. It's about doing the right thing. I'm not being lazy, this is much more difficult than if I just went and filled out the form for a trademark right now and owned it myself.

gabek,

@vorlon @IzzyOnDroid @darnell I think that's the only answer that makes sense, and is likely the path other projects take as well (I'm guessing? But I've still been unable to get that answered). I know I need it registered, but the to who is the question. And "random 3rd party" seems to be the answer.

gabek,

@danyork @lukem To create a real, legal, "nonprofit" is very difficult and expensive, however. If you're somebody taking in millions of dollars a year, then spending the money needed to have a board and full time financial oversight, and team running a foundation makes sense, I would assume. But I would never be able to do that, it's just me. It would cost way more than any donations that would come in. Trying to leverage another nonprofit, like the ones you mentioned, would be the way to go. Hopefully, I can find somebody to be helpful in this regard.

gabek,

@claudius I had forgotten about Iceweasel. It's a really good example of this kind of thing, thanks for reminding me!

gabek, to random

It's so cool that people use Owncast.

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