Re:Buttercoin – US-based Bitcoin exchange
by 1qaz2wsx3edc on Friday February 28, 2014 @04:54PM
(#7321779)
I understand your point of view, but isn't that sort of the spirit of open source software? To take it and build something with it. I mean, they didn't close the repo, it's still up there, they just made the decision to not contribute back as they decided to build a business around it. Others can too.
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Open source, yes. Free software, no.
Sadly this was open source, not free.
Re:Buttercoin – US-based Bitcoin exchange
by wcoenen on Friday February 28, 2014 @07:11PM
(#7322411)
Free software typically doesn't force you to share changes either, as long as you don't distribute the binaries. Patching GPL code and using it in a web application without ever releasing the source is perfectly fine.
The Affero GPL was designed to force the release of source even in that case. That's the only license I know which has that property though.
Free software != GPL. One could argue that the Affero GPL represents a continuation of the ideals which gave birth to the GPL, now that more and more applications have moved to being network services (something less common in 80's).