Free Software and Public Performance

[David Johnson]

Yesterday, Slashdot was gathering questions to ask of Richard Stallman
for one of their interviews. Several people were asking about whether
the GPLv3 would address the issue of free software on servers, ASP, and
in general what we were discussing here recently about public
performance.

One of the comments struck me as significant. The author asked what was
actually being sold when a application was served from a publicly
accessible server. He asserted that it was the CPU time that was being
sold, and not the software, a software license, etc. Basically, a
company installs a web-based application then sells the *use* of their
server running the application.

As I see it from this perspective, the only way that a free software
license could restrict or impose conditions on this stuff is through a
public performance clause. Although this could legally be done, it
would shoot a whole right through the FSF's first definition of free
software, namely, the freedom to run the program.

And thoughts on this?

 -- 
David Johnson...
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