A4 Vertaisarvioitu artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
Hard-coded censorship in Open Source Mastodon clients — How Free is Open Source?
Tekijät: Juhani Naskali
Toimittaja: Jani Koskinen, Minna Rantanen, Anne-Marie Tuikka, Sari Knaapi-Junnila
Konferenssin vakiintunut nimi: Conference on Technology Ethics
Julkaisuvuosi: 2020
Journal: CEUR Workshop Proceedings
Kokoomateoksen nimi: Proceedings of the Conference on Technology Ethics: Turku, Finland, October, 21, 2020
Sarjan nimi: CEUR Workshop Proceedings
Vuosikerta: 2737
Aloitussivu: 86
Lopetussivu: 98
ISSN: 1613-0073
Verkko-osoite: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2737/FP_6.pdf
Rinnakkaistallenteen osoite: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/50315540
This article analyses hard-coded domain blocking in open source software, using the GPL3-licensed Mastodon client Tusky as a case example. First, the
question of whether such action is censorship is analysed. Second, the licensing
compliance of such action is examined using the applicable open-source software
and distribution licenses. Domain blocking is found to be censorship in the literal
definition of the word, as well as possibly against some the used Google distribution licenses — though some ambiguity remains, which calls for clarifications in the
agreement terms. GPL allows for functionalities that limit the use of the software,
as long as end-users are free to edit the source code and use a version of the application without such limitations. Such software is still open source, but no longer
free (as in freedom). A multi-disciplinary ethical examination of domain blocking
will be needed to ascertain whether such censorship is ethical, as all censorship is
not necessarily wrong.
Ladattava julkaisu This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |