“When a user uses a web application hosted on a server, he does
not possess the executable binary (let alone the source) of the
program and will lose access to the application if the provider
goes out of business or decides not to host it anymore. This is the
real threat of Microsoft’s .NET initiative and “thin-client”
computing.”
“The GNU General Public License typically does not apply to web
applications because they are not actually distributed. We need a
new license to ensure our code remains truly free in the face of
server-based applications.”
“I should more properly say “web applications are given the
ultimate copy protection as a result of being deployed on servers
rather than user machines” but that wouldn’t fit in the subject
line (and isn’t nearly as pithy).”
“When you install a binary executable application on your
computer, whether it is free or proprietary, you have the actual
executable program yourself. In general, you don’t need to be
hooked up to the net to run the program.”