Re: [Bug-gnuzilla] GNU LibreJS won't be removed from GNU IceCat

[bill-auger]

On 02/27/2018 01:33 PM, Ivan Zaigralin wrote:
> I realized that in order to make the web useful without 
> having to run nonfree software, we must *unscript* it. Fixing individual 
> pages/domains will not solve the problem posed by the disposable software; 


just to be clear about the words you are using - where first you
mentioned "drive-by-download" and now you say "disposable software" -
you meant the same by these yes? "disposable software" is quite better -
that says it very precisely - not unlike a plastic diaper

the main thing to say about javascript with respect to FOSS is that it
is difficult to make the case that *any* of this so-called "disposable
software" can really be considered as FOSS by their very nature - i
think this is what ivan was getting at so i wanted to draw it out more -
regardless of the license that the distributer puts on it, Freedoms #2
and #4 are currently superficial at best in this context - one could
theoretically download a script and modify it any way they wish - but
how many ways could they modify that would still allow it to function?
more importantly, would that script do *anything* at all if run outside
the context of the remote site? - the answer is for the most part "no" -
because these scripts are so closely coupled to network addresses and
remote session data, many of these script would do absolutely nothing
unless they are downloaded directly from the domain where they are
designed to originate - and even if they did there the server would most
likely refuse to give them a session - one could imagine the browser or
a plug-in allowing one to intercept the remote scripts and swap them
with user-supplied custom replacements; but i dont know of any that
exist today - so practically speaking, server-supplied scripts are only
theoretically and potentially free but not practically so

signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature