[pp.int.general] OTR Chatting en mass?

[Jack Allnutt]

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On 11/07/2013 21:04, Richard Stallman wrote:
>     It also looks like the client will be open source but not free software.
>
> What specific facts is that conclusion based on?

Their FAQ. They use the term "open source":

*Will it be Open Source?*
We have all intentions of opening up the source as much as possible for
scrutiny and help! What we really want people to understand however, is
that Open Source in itself does not guarantee any privacy or safety. It
sure helps with transparency, but technology by itself is not enough.
The fundamental benefits of Heml.is will be the app together with our
infrastructure, which is what really makes the system interesting and
secure.

But further down they state:

*Your server only?*
Yes! The way to make the system secure is that we can control the
infrastructure. Distributing to other servers makes it impossible to
give any guarantees about the security. We?ll have audits from trusted
third parties on our platforms regularily[sic], in cooperation with our
community.

This in combination with another answer:

*Will you provide an API and/or allow third party clients?*
At this point we don?t see how that would be possible without
compromising the security, so for now the answer is no.


leads me to conclude that it wouldn't allow the end-user to exercise her
4 freedoms, specifically #1. Of course they could just be talking about
their back-end, but I struggle to see how they would exclude forked
versions effectively if the client was completely free.

> It is possible for a
> program to be open source but not free software, but it is extremely
> unusual in an application.

Is there that much of a difference between a program and an application,
other than the packaging?

>   A priori, a misunderstanding is more
> likely.  Could this be a misunderstanding?

Perhaps, but I am sceptical.

- -- Jack
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