✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 20, 2025

the business model of element evidently is "write shitty code then extract rent from governments and cops to make it less shitty"

is there any wonder it's as bad as it is

https://m.unix.house/@jmc/113857052951936006

Joshua M. Clulow (@[email protected])

I know Synapse has few contributors outside of the Element company, but I just read this blog post about how Element is keeping the good Synapse code, increasingly rewritten in Rust so that it doesn't perform like a garbage barge, completely proprietary: https://element.io/blog/scaling-to-millions-of-users-requires-synapse-pro/ Why would *anybody* contribute to the legacy Python code which this post makes clear is not scalable and is not good enough to sell? Surely it's a self fulfilling prophecy.

m.unix.house
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 20, 2025

it disgusts me when companies make "community [project]" mean "a shitty useless version of proprietary [project] we actually care about"

it also disgusts me that AGPL mostly enables that

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 20, 2025
it's a transparent (and often successul) attempt to exploit unpaid labor by attracting people who want to improve the commons with the "open source" label and then selling the work they contribute, or using it to fundraise
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 20, 2025

yes, element does have a CLA, which they adopted simultaneously with AGPLv3 https://element.io/blog/element-to-adopt-agplv3/

(i consider AGPL a regressive force on the whole, and this kind of stuff is why. GNU even encourages it!)

A new home and license (AGPL) for Synapse and friends

Element has chosen to pursue future development of Synapse, Dendrite and associated server-side projects under the terms of AGPLv3.

Element Blog
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 20, 2025
(from https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10873661/filing-history)
NEW VECTOR LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

NEW VECTOR LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity

Joe OswaldJan 20, 2025
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧
to those who tell me it's not AGPLv3's fault:
- i claim this is the primary way in which the AGPLv3 license is utilized, in terms of number of deployments
- FSF encourages "selling exceptions"
- FSF encourages copyright assignment
therefore, FSF and AGPLv3 explicitly encourage this behavior. even if you try to claim it is not the "intended" one, it is the one that happens in practice
Jan 20, 2025 at 3:52pmWeb
Show threadEloy.Jan 20, 2025
@whitequark POSIWID, AGPLv3 edition
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Jan 20, 2025
@eloy precisely
Show threadmaswanJan 20, 2025
@whitequark FSF taking a good idea and making the shittiest choices in how to use and market that is very on brand tho.
Show thread🏳️‍🌈🎃🇧🇷Luana🇧🇷🎃🏳️‍🌈Jan 20, 2025
@whitequark “We, and only we, can create proprietary forks that include your open source contributions”