Re: [GNU-linux-libre] yes, this is great freedom problem

[bill-auger]

On Sat, 4 Aug 2018 00:32:44 +0200 Denis wrote:
> Personally I think that user should be able to trust FSDG compliant
> distributions. 
> 
> In my opinion, the distribution shall not be responsible of what is
> available on the Web and shall not force its users to have some filters
> imposed on them.
> 
> Last time I checked the FSDG guidelines, as I understand it,
> blocking privacy violating Web or Internet services was not mandatory,
> and free software applications for Facebook was not against such
> guidelines.

that final paragraph is concurring exactly with my post - the only reason i 
sent it was to say that, in addition to that common presumption, RMS has 
recently confirmed that presumption explicitly

the additional concern i added though, it seems you mis-understood - it was not 
merely about what is "available on the Web" to be run or avoided at the 
discretion of the user - the issue was regarding the case where the one and 
only functionality of a free client was to run arbitrary scripts sent to it 
willy-nilly from the server to be executed blindly on the client - such a 
program would be necessarily running non-free software locally on the user's 
machine and would be utterly useless if that behaviour was removed; unless 
perhaps someone, someday in the future, reverse engineers the proprietary 
server to write their own compatible server that only triggers fully licensed 
and published behaviours on the client; which would then, on that future day, 
but not before, give that client it's first use-case that does not entail 
running non-free scripts

i can not name any such clients off-hand, but i raise this issue because i was 
told that this is how the telegram client works

how about if your distro packages this little beauty for it's users:

  curl http://proprietary-service.com/random-unpublished.cgi | sudo bash

ok? - let's say it is GPL-licensed; so no FSDG conflict here right? - and let's 
say some people really enjoy this program - can't live without it - so the 
distro packages it and claims "it would be a dis-service to our users to remove 
this valuable program" - what does this do for your trust in your distro?

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