

The Free JavaScript campaign - sankha93
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/freejs

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gluxon
Why can't some people understand that authors want claim over their creations?
Is this really a bad thing? Not everyone writes code for the "good of
mankind", and we shouldn't be forcing people to. The quality of software will
just go down then.

Besides, JavaScript code is open source. The reason I push for open source is
so that others can get a learning experience by looking at ideas in existing
code. This campaign is being _really_ picky. Especially since it goes into
detail about "where" the code is ran. I'm sure a campaign about "freeing"
servers because they generate HTML would sound a lot more ridiculous.

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streptomycin
You don't seem to know what "open source" means. Also, you don't seem to know
that the FSF's goal is not "open source" (by either your definition or the
real one). Also, the FSF doesn't "force" anyone to do anything.

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russellsprouts
Honestly, this seems like a parody to me, but they are serious. Sure, some
sites are open-source. But I wouldn't expect every site to be open source.

~~~
streptomycin
They don't "expect" every site to be. They are hoping to make marginal change
towards more free software. This is entirely in line with their other work.

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bsimpson
JavaScript is one of the freeist languages in common usage. On any page on the
Internet, I can hit Alt+Shift+I and literally modify the source code of the
page in real time. Yeah, sometimes the names are minified (which is presumably
what this campaign is about), but it's a stretch of credibility for the FSF to
put a proprietary OS and a minified web site in the same category.

More to the point, the sites that are big enough for this to even be an issue
(such as the cited Google Docs) have a business interest in keeping that code
proprietary. If you drew a Venn diagram of sites complex enough that
minification prevents tinkering and sites with any likelihood of GPLing that
code, you'd have two independent circles.

~~~
winter_blue
Fair point. So we have a situation similar to any other kind of software.

I just want to point out though, that optimized & minified code isn't really
that different from say -- a blob of JVM code. JVM can be de-compiled, and
sort-of be brought into a human readable form. This is a tab bit harder with
x86 - but we're forgetting obfuscators here. Anyone who really don't want you
to peek into their code will use an obfuscator.

Ultimately though -- I think the defining aspect of whether X code is open or
closed, is the a measure of the ease with which I can take that code and
modify it (perhaps make some enhancements to it). This is either difficult or
sometimes practically impossible with x86, obfuscated JVM, obfuscated and/or
minified JS, etc.

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jlgaddis
I joined the EFF a decade or so ago. I fully support almost everything they do
with the money I give to them and am happy to be able to contribute to their
efforts.

I joined the FSF right about the same time. When it comes time to renew my
membership, sadly what comes to mind is not the good things that the FSF works
towards.

It is stuff like this that makes me seriously question whether I should
continue to give money to the FSF money or if perhaps there is someone else
who might make better use of it.

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trevordixon
I think they're talking more about the license under which the code is
released and less about whether or not it's minified or obfuscated.

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wturner
I want to see alternatives that allow people to be able to get paid from their
creations. I don't care if its free or closed or even government enforced or
constrained insofar that it allows for greater freedom in the long run. I'm
waiting for the day that Jaron Lanier and Richard Stallman have a public
discussion/debate.

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leokun
I saw a login page. How about making your free manifesto also registration-
free.

Edit: strange, no I can see the article. Maybe a bug with the URL before or
some kind of site hiccup.

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shill
Same here.

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whitehat2k9
The FSF has gone full derp.

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amorphid
The source code for the page contains JavaScript.

~~~
krapp

        /*
        The only JavaScript code we have right now is the piwik
        statistics ...
    

I guess proprietary javascript spyware is only evil when other sites do it.

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graue
Piwik isn't proprietary; it's under the GPLv3:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piwik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piwik)

~~~
krapp
Hm. Fair enough.

