Hi everyone,

Free Software Melbourne July 15th - User Freedom on the Web

Free software is defined by the four user freedoms and for a long time these freedoms have been ensured by Free Software licenses like the GPL. While not perfect these licenses help preserve the four freedoms for the kinds of applications we use on our desktop computers that do not involve other computers. Things start to get a bit more complicated when we start making software available over a network and using such software. Mix in the popularity of the World Wide Web and it makes it tricky to preserve these freedoms.

In this talk I will give an introduction to the topic of user freedom on the Web. I will talk about the issues on server-side (that is the ASP loophole and SaaSS) and also from the client-side (i.e. the javascript trap). I will also cover some of today's popular solutions and mitigations to these problems like the AGPL, self-hosted services and the LibreJS browser extension.

We look forward to seeing you at the online meeting!

P.S. meetup.com is not required for following FSM updates. If you are reading this announcement through meetup.com, the speaker advises that you reduce your dependency on proprietary software required for using meetup.com, by signing up to the FSM mailing list at https://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/free-software-melb for all FSM announcements.

Details

Thursday, 15th July 2021, 7:30pm-9:00pm
Join us at: https://meet.glasswings.com.au/b/fsm-iv6-tce-vpu
Short video intro to Big Blue Button (BBB): https://www.yewtu.be/watch?v=uYYnryIM0Uw
Meeting Tips:
Be sure to test your audio on the way in.
Your mic will be muted when you join the room.
Headsets are recommended to reduce any feedback.
Code of Conduct: https://freesoftware.org.au/code-of-conduct

~~ Ben