Freedom Issue #3272
[betterdiscordctl] Appears only to be useful with proprietary Discord
100%
Description
Notably this package is only in the ARM repos so I presume it's imported from ArchARM.
Related issues
History
Updated by bill-auger over 1 year ago
- Related to Freedom Issue #3370: betterdiscordctl (nonfree software) added
Updated by bill-auger over 1 year ago
- Assignee set to bill-auger
- Status changed from unconfirmed to in progress
Updated by gap:
Confirmed: only useful with proprietary software.
Updated by GNUtoo:
I've looked a bit into it but I didn't understand what betterdiscordctl is supposed to do.
Does it interact with nonfree software that you are supposed to install on your computer?
Denis.
Updated by bill-auger over 1 year ago
without looking at the source code, i am inclined to call this one "fully libre" and FSDG-fit - AFAICT, this program does nothing more than to download, install, and configure another program: 'better-discord' - 'better-discord' is apache2-licensed; so there is not necessarily any FSDG conflict - it is not obvious what 'better-discord' actually is (other than a poorly-licensed heap of javascript) - it appears to be a patch-set or javascript "plugin" for a proprietary discordapp desktop "app" (whatever that means - probalby electron?)
Confirmed: only useful with proprietary software.
just to be pedantic, thats probably not quite accurate - whether or not the software running on the server is libre, it is effectively non-free for all users; because the software is not running on a computer which any user controls - the server program is neither non-free nor libre - it's licensing is totally irrelevant to any user
this is not a unique subject though - it is fairly common - i may call it "the telegram client problem" or "the libre client for SaaSS delusion" - there is no FSDG prescription for "software only useful with non-free or with SaaSS"; and RMS has stated so explicitly when asked about the telegram client
it has other issues though, such the downloader/installer pulling other binaries from the network - i would be fine with blacklisting this with no replacement - maybe someone would want to audit it properly and patch-out the downloader someday - my guess is that most parabola users would never use this program; so i would not represent a loss of important functionality for parabola
Updated by bill-auger over 1 year ago
- Status changed from in progress to fixed
$ grep discord blacklist.txt
betterdiscordctl::parabola:3272:[technical][uses-nonfree] downloader/installer for another program (better-discord - also libre), which reuqires/suggests ('uses-nonfree') discordapp desktop "app" (electron?)
discord-canary::parabola:2489::[nonfree] No source code available - redistribution-only license
discord::parabola:2489::[nonfree] No source code available - redistribution-only license
Updated by bill-auger over 1 year ago
- Related to Freedom Issue #2489: [discord] Non free software added