[okfn-discuss] Taking the Open Service Definition to 1.0

[Benj. Mako Hill]

<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
mako at atdot.cc
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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