Agree.
No company or application is immune, and this is reflected in the news.
When the elements are sensitive:
And even then…
Can’t be more serious. There are always reasons for that. All these rules are not random.
It’s simply not true.
Thank you and take care
You don’t need to trust anyone to use our software—you’re free to run it independently without any special permissions, as long as you’re not selling it to others. This approach is fair to us, given our significant investment in development. Currently, about half of our work is open source under the MIT License, and we plan to make more of it open source over time.
Our apps are not closed source. We currently use a source-available license, and we plan to introduce a three-year timer so that after three years, all code will automatically become free and open-source software (FOSS). So far, the only complaints we’ve received have been from people who want to use our code for resale without any contribution back to us. That isn’t fair.
awesome!! (eventual-open-source is definitely … a step in the right direction 
)
out of sheer curiosity: I don’t quite understand how anyone could re-sell AGPL-licensed software, where is the benefit? if you have a scenario, i’d be interested.
(Update: "no consecutive replies allowed, editing this one)
@sofalakatino That is interesting indeed – can you name examples? Because so far, regarding licensing, the direction is away from open source (and by that from freedom, user protection, etc.). If the terms are comparably “bad” … good point! I would be interested.
@anton Well, same goes here. I’d be very interested in a nuanced argument, especially since you claim “freedoms” a lot. Simply stating “naaah not true” … well.
And don’t forget – the last action with real world impact was the closing of the source code, while you happily keep the “Open source” review snippet on the main page. Very large letters. That feels not good.
I know this is distracting, and you probably just want to bring your software forward. Still, I think you understand my hesitation here if I tell you that I plan to move all my note taking, knowledge management, etc. into Anytype. I really like what I already see, and the promise is even better.
Imagine the pain should you for any (haha 
) reason decide / be forced to do a 180 on your promises. I repeat: Wordpress vs. WP Engine is a supreme example of what is possible, and that is “true” open source.
This, though, would be a great step. If you’re serious about that you might even go down with the three year period. Yet, put a bit harsher, “plans” are worth absolutely nothing. Action counts.
I know that those discussions are annoying, yet those are the price if users actually want to bring their most precious data into your app. Different critieria apply, harder questsions are asked.
Wordpress vs. WP Engine is a supreme example of what is possible, and that is “true” open source.
I wish people would stop falling into hysteria with this.
That example is not the same. Wordpress is still open source. Remove all the trademarks and make money with it as you wish. It’s about trademarking and that WP Engine even changed things in the sources so that they get the revenue from Stripe with Woocommerce. They have been greedy on Wordpress’ back. So part of me understands all this shitshow.
It is not possible to remove an GPL licence from a project, at least so easily.
Standard Notes tried this once without consulting a lawyer and got a huge backlash from the community with this. Apart from that they wouldn’t have the right to do that in the first place.
out of sheer curiosity: I don’t quite understand how anyone could re-sell AGPL-licensed software, where is the benefit? if you have a scenario, i’d be interested.
You can create a business out of it. You could fork a FOSS project, rename all the trademark, create your own servers (if it’s a SaaS) and rebrand it as your service.
You could be an IT service or consultant who sells infrastructure to other companies. Creating a productivity setup for a small team and sell the software as a licenced package (with a service agreement and a monthly fee) would come to mind. Also here, just change the branding and you don’t violate any trademarks.
This fear of open source SaaS projects isn’t new (Standard Notes example above).
I wish people would try to understand what others mean, because no one is hysteric here.
The point is that governing entities (in that case: Wordpress, and the foundation) have a ton of leverage, even with the product being fully open source. Here he controls not only huge and vital parts of the ecosystem, but also the trademark, and he’s using it to the maximum effect.
Now remove “open source”. Will it become easier for him, or harder, to wage this war? Will WP Engine then have an easier time, or a harder time?
With regards to this the situation is a nice showcase, and – in my opinion – well suited for demonstrating that companies producing open source software are anything but “helpless”, or, (in that particular case we might add:) “poor”.
You miss the point. If you remove the trademarks (that are not open source) no one is stopping you from forking the project and distribute your own SaaS.
Yes? I neither doubted that, nor was that at any time my point?
My point was – if you have AGPL licensed code, “selling” it does not make sense for 3rd parties, because they’d have to also open-source any modifications or enhancements they do. Depending on the license that could include required infrastructure modifications / enhancements for their setup.
So why would anyone buy it, if they can have it for free? And if the “price is right”, I’d assume the “righter” price is from the people who actually make the software.
Still, yes, naturally you open yourself up to competition in the “hosted product” space. Which is, if you decide to be open source, a natural and obvious consequence.
So why would anyone buy it, if they can have it for free? And if the “price is right”, I’d assume the “righter” price is from the people who actually make the software.
You can advertise and sell it like it is a product of yours. You just need to remove all the trademarks, rebrand it and you could make your own little business out of it. If you target B2B and don’t brag about open source you can just make the sources public via a private repo that is not on Github. You just have to give other access to the sources if someone asks.
If you then get some momentum after a couple of years you could hire people and go your own way off the original code base and change the licence.
You don’t seem to know as much about this as you do about WordPress, which just got a lot of play in the news because it’s so widespread. But whatever the license, there are cases of hijacking.
In AGLP? Check out Grafana, someone tried to sell it to me a few years ago ;-).
Do I not? Well, enlighten me then, instead of going into ad-hominems. Otherwise I’d say “if you say so” …
it’s not a matter of what is or isn’t confidential, it’s a matter of autonomy. we are all due the decency of respect and the right to privacy, regardless of what we’re doing—and, for that matter, regardless of whether or not what we do is deemed ‘worthy of confidentiality’ by someone else’s metric. it’s not for Any or Microsoft or anyone but me to decide what to share or what fits which category. i understood that to be part of Any’s ethos and an impetus for choosing to make software for local-first, encrypted data.
for some of us, it’s not about the ability to verify it, but the lack of ability to contribute to it. i’m not alone in saying that i’d like to contribute but can’t because it would require the use of a product operated by a privacy-violating tech giant.
(i only mentioned Capacities, by the way, to agree with you when you said it’d be impractical to maintain a separate site like that when git repos and forums have been thus far effective at meeting the need. my suggestion was a migration from GitHub to Codeberg or Forgejo or the like.)
Can I understand that anytype is not more than 80% of the front-end applications like other note-taking software?
very high level: yes.
some things that set it apart:
this is kinda unique, and works surprisingly well.
what is the same:
what sucks (personal opinion):
ping @HAN
Didn’t read the whole thing, but I have to say it. Anytype isn’t perfect - there is no such a software. Developers know that 
BUT recently I’ve testes almost every app in that “industry” and I have to say that Anytype is the fastest one, have full offline mode, decent UI/UX (mobiles are weak points).
Good Job Anytype Team! I appreciate your work and hope we will get more cool things soon!
Very wise. It’s degenerated into a mix of pedantic hair-splitting and ad hominem snark. There are some interesting points hidden in here somewhere but life’s too short.
I have to say…like many here…many valid points, but full of anger, entitlement and suspicion.
Bottom line, here’s my summary for anyType team. Many of these things they already promised to work on.
Oh and last point: avoid dragging politics in here @anton. Spelling out two countries as axis of evil, and ignoring several others, including a 4 word country that has started more wars in history of mankind than any other nation…it will just piss people off and veer this conversation of course. Speaking as one Slav to another 
Go anyTeam!
Said the person who prominently tells everyone how unwoke they are while re-using Elmo’s narratives in the profile desc and George W. Bush’s terms like “axis of evil” right in this post.
