On setting all software free, indeed, thats the point made in the post by mjg59. None of the AI companies train on their own proprietary software though, which is telling.
On Affero, that was indeed definitely needed, although some folks on HN seem to think that privately modifying code is allowed by copyright, even if the modified version is outputting a public website, thus what the license says is irrelevant. That seems bogus to me, but seems a loophole if it is legit. Anyway, personally I think that people should simply just never use SaaS, nor web apps. It also doesn't help with data portability.
I'd go further and advocate for legally mandated source code escrow for copyright validity, and GPL like rights to the code once public, which would happen if the software is off the market for N years.
> I'd go further and advocate for legally mandated source code escrow for copyright validity, and GPL like rights to the code once public, which would happen if the software is off the market for N years.
On Affero, that was indeed definitely needed, although some folks on HN seem to think that privately modifying code is allowed by copyright, even if the modified version is outputting a public website, thus what the license says is irrelevant. That seems bogus to me, but seems a loophole if it is legit. Anyway, personally I think that people should simply just never use SaaS, nor web apps. It also doesn't help with data portability.
I'd go further and advocate for legally mandated source code escrow for copyright validity, and GPL like rights to the code once public, which would happen if the software is off the market for N years.