luna, @ done with p8s what now @rin@dragn.gay

I just found what might possibly be the absolute worst use of the AGPL so far.

https://github.com/Forty-Bot/ethernet

An Ethernet PHY. Seriously.

As anyone who has read my prior AGPL rants knows, the only way to reasonably comply with this utterly nonfree license in a way that is practical is to have a mandatory self-source-code-serving feature to the software.

That project only has one contributor so far, so the license is moot at this point, and users are free to use it and incorporate it into their projects verbatim (AGPL section 13 does not trigger then). However, in order to make any changes to the source code, you would have to:

* Add a feature to the build system to package the entire source code and embed it into the design as a ROM
* Add a feature to the PHY to serve its source code on demand, perhaps when presented with a special IP packet.
* Somehow advertise the source code to *every user that interacts with it remotely* (AGPL section 13). Note the term "user" - the advertisement has to be directed at a person. Sending packets randomly or as replies to incoming MACs won't work, since those will end up in /dev/null. You'd have to implement full deep packet inspection in the PHY to inject the offers into, say, every website load that traverses the PHY, and then have a full IP stack so you can actually serve the source code end to end.

So basically, in order to contribute to the project, you'd have to build Great Firewall functionality into the PHY first. Then send a pull for that, then add whatever changes you actually had to make. The same goes even if you don't plan to upstream your changes.

This is just a "source available, no modifications allowed" license with extra Stallman [bf]ootlicking.

"QUICK. WHAT ARE THE 128 MOST IMPORTANT INSTRUMENTS? WE NEED TO HAVE THE GENERAL MIDI SPEC IN TOMORROW!"

"UH FUCK, PIANO 1 PIANO 2 PIANO 3 FLUTE OBOE GUN"

"GUN???"

"HELICOPTER"

.@CutestKitten just sent me the funniest story I've seen in a while - a game dev who exploited a vulnerability in their own game to remotely patch it post release