Re: Dependence on nonfree software

[Ineiev]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 12:25:45AM -0500, Richard Stallman wrote:
>     > The package must not refer the user to any nonfree software; in
>     > other words, it must not say anything that in our judgment is likely
>     > to lead or steer users towards running or installing nonfree
>     > software on their machine.
> 
> That is a good formulation.  (It should say "their own machines".)
> But I agree an example would help make it clead.
> 
> Suppose you write a free program that can run in a free GNU/Linux
> distro and talks with Google Maps.   With it, people can use Google Maps
> and not run any nonfree JS code.  Use of this free program depends on
> the use of the site, Google Maps, but it does not depend on _your_
> running any nonfree program.  So it is ok on this criterion.

The analogy doesn't hold: the server part of Google Maps
is deployed by its developer and copyright holder, Google,
on Google's own machines; the server software of Google Maps
is free, even though unreleased, whereas we discuss the case
where server software is proprietary.

Then, for libre-sapienza (Savannah task #15792), the university
and its students form a single entity: the administration
of the university provides the students with some information
for internal needs of the university.

So the user is the same, there is no "other users" who have
to surrender their freedom for sake of users of the package
in question.

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