External deployment / Otherwise Make Available (was Re: OVPL summary)

[Alex Bligh]

More on this can of worms:

> As I envision it, when I use Yahoo's webmail system by pointing my browser
> to www.mail.yahoo.com, I am in fact using the software contained on
> Yahoo's servers. I control and direct its actions, expressly causing it
> to access mail from a disk somewhere and display it on my computer
> screen. If Yahoo's webmail application were licensed to the Yahoo company
> under the OSL, and I was (with respect to Yahoo) a third-party, I would
> expect Yahoo to publish under the OSL any changes it made to that
> software.

This from Larry (off-list, resent with permission) helps me understand
his view a bit:

> I think that a third-party customer of an ISP running either a webmail
> system or an SMTP client of some sort is a "user" of that system.
> However, I don't think that a third-party who sends email to or through a
> webmail system or an SMTP client is a "user" in that way.

At least the above is technology neutral, though I still don't understand
what the criterion is by which one draws the line.

Alex