Re: MELPA issues - Re: Proposal for an Emacs User Survey

[Jean Louis]

* Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> [2020-10-18 07:12]:
> [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
> [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
> 
>   > > babel - that uses non-free Babelfish translations (if I am mistaken
>   > > tell me)
>   > > 
>   > > calfw-gcal - to edit Google calendar
> 
> When you say that those things are non-free, what precisely does that
> mean?  It might be a misunderstanding, because a service is neither
> free nor proprietary.

Service is neither free nor proprietary. That is right.

It is my opinion that it does not give freedom to user:

- the package "babel" is accessing non-free dictionary, their terms
  are that one shall not replicate, sell or reporduce content in any
  way. This warning may not be given to user by the package, and
  practically, I am using free dictionaries, which information I can
  embed, including sell as index or glossary. When using babel
  package, I would as user assume that information is free and would
  maybe incorporate it in other works, finally I am using Emacs which
  is meant for text editing.

  Using Wiktionary on the other hand gives me those freedoms.

- for package calfw-gcal, it may allow me to access Google Calendar
  services. It also implies that me as user must register Google
  account, meaning I must submit to being tracked by Google, I have
  access non-free Javascript. Those actions that are necessary before
  I can use the package calfw-gcal. 

> Do these packages run any nonfree software or use some nonfree
> collection of data?

For Babelfish, I doubt that package maintainer complained legally to
their terms, for Google calendar package is clear that one has to
register Google account by using non-free Javascript in order to use
the package.

> Or are you referring to the fact that they send commands to a
> service?

No.

I refer to practical facts above.