Re: [fsf-community-team] Enhancements and fixes for js-encumbered websites

[W. Kosior]

> Nice documentation - lots of food for thought, thanks! (Also the 
> project looks like a great initialtive)

:)

> One minor question about the documentation:
> 
> > LibreJS' strategy of judging scripts based on a license notice 
> > fails for example when someone takes an X11-licensed js library, 
> > modifies it and serves a minified version of the modified lib on 
> > their site. LibreJS will allow this script to execute, even 
> > though the modifications are obviously nonfree.  
> 
> Why would the modifications be nonfree in this case? Minification 
> is a derivative like compilation, and if the source is licensed 
> under X11, and if the modified version is also under a free 
> license, then there's no problem LibreJS allows it to execute.

I am assuming the case where released are:
- original source code, with free license
- minified modified source code, with free license
and the non-minified modified source code is kept secret

Actually, it does not even need to be a _modified_ library. A bad
webmaster could just write some code from ground up and serve it
minified-only with a free license attached.

> Another thought I have about the project after reading the 
> documentation (haven't studied all the technical details yet), is 
> that while the goal is software freedom, it tries to address many 
> problems, [...]

Yes. That's because we want it to be as appealing to the public as
possible.

> But IMO the key is to fix the "tivoization" of the web by easing the
> action of replacing js scripts of each site with user-supplied 
> freely-licensed ones.

And this is indeed my _personal_ main motive for developing this ;)

> I assume it is doable with LibreJS + GreaseMonkey (haven't tried it
> myself),

That's what I assume, too! Haven't tried either because I dodn't want
to spend time on solution that is only temporary.

> but perhaps a first step could be just to combine the functionalities
> of these two to make it dead easy to substitute scripts before they
> are run, and the second step could be to create the platform of a
> free js repo for all the webistes?

Well, this is also our order of actions. I said "platform"
deliberately, to make it clear it does not end with just an extension.
However, right now we only have the extension.

> Sorry I just realised I didn't retain the whole original email when
> ccing rms in my reply.

It's OK, he already had the original...


Thank for feedback,

Wojtek


On Fri, 02 Jul 2021 10:49:11 +1000
Yuchen Pei <hi@ypei.me> wrote:

> W. Kosior via fsf-community-team <fsf-community-team@gnu.org> 
> writes:
> 
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'd like to invite you to take a look at and possibly contribute 
> > to our
> > project aiming to deliver user-controlled Internet. We're 
> > developing a
> > platform to allow, among others, _replacing_ web pages' scripts 
> > with
> > user-provided ones. Besides making websites once again usable 
> > with
> > libre software, we also plan to facilitate making, running and 
> > sharing
> > site enhancements (features, styling, alternative interfaces,
> > translations, accessibility fixes).
> >
> > Documentation* (also contains non-technical concept 
> > explanation):
> >   https://koszko.org/browser-extension-doc.html  
> 
> Nice documentation - lots of food for thought, thanks! (Also the 
> project looks like a great initialtive)
> 
> One minor question about the documentation:
> 
> > LibreJS' strategy of judging scripts based on a license notice 
> > fails for example when someone takes an X11-licensed js library, 
> > modifies it and serves a minified version of the modified lib on 
> > their site. LibreJS will allow this script to execute, even 
> > though the modifications are obviously nonfree.  
> 
> Why would the modifications be nonfree in this case? Minification 
> is a derivative like compilation, and if the source is licensed 
> under X11, and if the modified version is also under a free 
> license, then there's no problem LibreJS allows it to execute.
> 
> Another thought I have about the project after reading the 
> documentation (haven't studied all the technical details yet), is 
> that while the goal is software freedom, it tries to address many 
> problems, including malicious js code and crypto mining and 
> verification of source-minification correspondence. But IMO the 
> key is to fix the "tivoization" of the web by easing the action of 
> replacing js scripts of each site with user-supplied 
> freely-licensed ones. I assume it is doable with LibreJS + 
> GreaseMonkey (haven't tried it myself), but perhaps a first step 
> could be just to combine the functionalities of these two to make 
> it dead easy to substitute scripts before they are run, and the 
> second step could be to create the platform of a free js repo for 
> all the webistes?
> 
> Best,
> Yuchen
> 



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