Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/07/14/autonomo-us-launch.html

The Network Services committee that I alluded to recently
in various interviews
is now officially public and
named: Autonomo.us. (Thanks to one of
the committee members, Evan
Prodromou, who donated the domain
name. ) Autonomo.us is officially
endorsed by the
FSF.

I’ve written
before about how discussions began at FSF in January 2002 to address the
“ASP loophole of the GPL”. In those months that
followed, when I came up with the idea for what would (later be named)
the Affero clause, I naïvely thought that a license term for the
software would “solve” the Software as a Service (SaaS)
problem. Indeed, I considered the problem fully addressed upon publication of the original AGPL, and it was much later before I realized the problem was more complex.

The AGPLv3 is only one (albeit essential) part of what must
be a multi-pronged strategy to address the freedom implications and
concerns of SaaS.
At Auotonomo.us,
we have published The Franklin Street Statement on Freedom and Network Services (named for the place it
was declared — the location of post-Temple-Place FSF offices). The Statement is a manifesto (of sorts) outlining the
concerns that must be addressed and the beginnings of some ideas for
solutions. I hope you will read it and begin considering this
issue if you haven’t already, and that you will endorse the statement if you already understand the issue. We hope to be publishing more on that site as
the year goes on!