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+<!-- This is the second edition of Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman.
+
+Free Software Foundation
+
+51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
+
+Boston, MA 02110-1335
+Copyright C 2002, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire book are permitted
+worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is
+preserved. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations
+of this book from the original English into another language provided
+the translation has been approved by the Free Software Foundation and
+the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all
+copies.
+
+ISBN 978-0-9831592-0-9
+Cover design by Rob Myers.
+
+Cover photograph by Peter Hinely.
+ -->
+
+
+ <a name="Who-Does-That-Server-Really-Serve_003f">
+ </a>
+ <h1 class="chapter">
+ 33. Who Does That Server Really Serve?
+ </h1>
+ <a name="index-Software-as-a-Service-_0028SaaS_0029-_0028see-also-SaaS_0029">
+ </a>
+ <a name="Background_003a-How-Proprietary-Software-Takes-Away-Your-Freedom">
+ </a>
+ <h3 class="subheading">
+ Background: How Proprietary Software Takes Away Your Freedom
+ </h3>
+ <a name="index-spyware">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-as-distinguished-from-proprietary-software">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-proprietary-software_002c-as-distinguished-from-SaaS">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Digital technology can give you freedom; it can also take your freedom
+away. The first threat to our control over our computing came from
+ <em>
+ proprietary software
+ </em>
+ : software that the users cannot control
+because the
+ <a name="index-ownership_002c-and-users_0027-freedom-2">
+ </a>
+ owner (a company such as
+ <a name="index-Apple-_0028see-also-DRM_0029-2">
+ </a>
+ Apple or Microsoft) controls
+it. The owner often takes advantage of this unjust power by inserting
+malicious features such as spyware, back doors, and
+ <a name="index-DRM_002c-call-it-_0060_0060Digital-Restrictions-Management_0027_0027-4">
+ </a>
+ Digital
+Restrictions Management (DRM) (referred to as “Digital Rights
+Management” in their propaganda).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Our solution to this problem is developing
+ <em>
+ free software
+ </em>
+ and
+rejecting proprietary software. Free software means that you, as a
+user, have four essential freedoms: (0) to run the program as you
+wish, (1) to study and change the source code so it does what you
+wish, (2) to redistribute exact copies, and (3) to
+redistribute copies of your modified versions. (See “The Free
+Software Definition,”.)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ With free software, we, the users, take back control of our
+computing. Proprietary software still exists, but we can exclude it
+from our lives and many of us have done so. However, we now face a
+new threat to our control over our computing: Software as a Service.
+For our freedom’s sake, we have to reject that too.
+ </p>
+ <a name="How-Software-as-a-Service-Takes-Away-Your-Freedom">
+ </a>
+ <h3 class="subheading">
+ How Software as a Service Takes Away Your Freedom
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Software as a Service (SaaS) means that someone sets up a network
+server that does certain computing tasks—running spreadsheets,
+word processing, translating text into another language,
+etc.—then invites users to do their computing on that server.
+Users send their data to the server, which does their computing on the
+data thus provided, then sends the results back or acts on them
+directly.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ These servers wrest control from the users even more inexorably
+than proprietary software. With proprietary software, users typically
+get an executable file but not the source code. That makes it hard
+for programmers to study the code that is running, so it’s hard to
+determine what the program really does, and hard to change it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ With SaaS, the users do not have even the executable file: it is on
+the server, where the users can’t see or touch it. Thus it is
+impossible for them to ascertain what it really does, and impossible
+to change it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Furthermore, SaaS automatically leads to harmful consequences
+equivalent to the malicious features of certain proprietary software.
+For instance, some proprietary programs are “spyware”: the
+program sends out data about users’ computing activities. Microsoft
+ <a name="index-Windows_002c-SaaS-and">
+ </a>
+ Windows sends information about users’ activities to Microsoft.
+ <a name="index-Windows-Media-Player-_0028see-also-both-DRM-and-treacherous-computing_0029-1">
+ </a>
+ Windows Media Player and
+ <a name="index-RealPlayer-_0028see-also-DRM_0029">
+ </a>
+ RealPlayer report what each user watches or
+listens to.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Unlike proprietary software, SaaS does not require covert code to
+obtain the user’s data. Instead, users must send their data to the
+server in order to use it. This has the same effect as spyware: the
+server operator gets the data. He gets it with no special effort, by
+the nature of SaaS.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-proprietary-software_002c-spying-on-users">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Some proprietary programs can mistreat users under remote command.
+For instance,
+ <a name="index-Windows_002c-SaaS-and-1">
+ </a>
+ Windows has a back door with which Microsoft can
+forcibly change any software on the machine. The
+ <a name="index-Amazon-1">
+ </a>
+ Amazon
+ <a name="index-Kindle-_0028see-also-Swindle_0029-1">
+ </a>
+ Kindle e-book
+reader (whose name suggests it’s intended to burn people’s books) has
+an Orwellian back door that Amazon used in 2009
+to remotely delete Kindle copies of
+ <a name="index-Orwell_002c-George-1">
+ </a>
+ Orwell’s books
+ <a name="index-1984_002c-George-Orwell-1">
+ </a>
+ <cite>
+ 1984
+ </cite>
+ and
+ <a name="index-Animal-Farm_002c-George-Orwell">
+ </a>
+ <cite>
+ Animal Farm
+ </cite>
+ which the users had purchased from Amazon.
+ <a href="#FOOT49" name="DOCF49">
+ (49)
+ </a>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ SaaS inherently gives the server operator the power to change the
+software in use, or the users’ data being operated on. Once again, no
+special code is needed to do this.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Thus, SaaS is equivalent to total spyware and a gaping wide back
+door, and gives the server operator unjust power over the user. We
+can’t accept that.
+ <a name="index-spyware-1">
+ </a>
+ </p>
+ <a name="Untangling-the-SaaS-Issue-from-the-Proprietary-Software-Issue">
+ </a>
+ <h3 class="subheading">
+ Untangling the SaaS Issue from the Proprietary Software Issue
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ SaaS and proprietary software lead to similar harmful results, but
+the causal mechanisms are different. With proprietary software, the
+cause is that you have and use a copy which is difficult or illegal to
+change. With SaaS, the cause is that you use a copy you don’t
+have.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ These two issues are often confused, and not only by accident. Web
+developers use the vague term “web application” to lump
+the server software together with programs run on your machine in your
+browser. Some web pages install nontrivial or even large
+ <a name="index-JavaScript">
+ </a>
+ JavaScript
+programs temporarily into your browser without informing
+you. When these JavaScript
+programs are nonfree, they are as bad as any other nonfree
+software. Here, however, we are concerned with the problem of the
+server software itself.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-ownership_002c-servers-and-software">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Many free software supporters assume that the problem of SaaS will
+be solved by developing free software for servers. For the server
+operator’s sake, the programs on the server had better be free; if
+they are proprietary, their owners have power over the server. That’s
+unfair to the operator, and doesn’t help you at all. But if the
+programs on the server are free, that doesn’t protect you
+ <em>
+ as the
+server’s user
+ </em>
+ from the effects of SaaS. They give freedom to the
+operator, but not to you.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Releasing the server software source code does benefit the
+community: suitably skilled users can set up similar servers, perhaps
+changing the software. But none of these servers would give you
+control over computing you do on it, unless it’s
+ <em>
+ your
+ </em>
+ server.
+The rest would all be SaaS. SaaS always subjects you to the power of
+the server operator, and the only remedy is,
+ <em>
+ Don’t use SaaS!
+ </em>
+ Don’t use someone else’s server to do your own computing on data
+provided by you.
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-as-distinguished-from-proprietary-software-1">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-proprietary-software_002c-as-distinguished-from-SaaS-1">
+ </a>
+ </p>
+ <a name="Distinguishing-SaaS-from-Other-Network-Services">
+ </a>
+ <h3 class="subheading">
+ Distinguishing SaaS from Other Network Services
+ </h3>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-as-distinguished-from-other-network-services">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Does condemning SaaS mean rejecting all network servers? Not at
+all. Most servers do not raise this issue, because the job you do
+with them isn’t your own computing except in a trivial sense.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The original purpose of web servers wasn’t to do computing for you,
+it was to publish information for you to access. Even today this is
+what most web sites do, and it doesn’t pose the SaaS problem, because
+accessing someone’s published information isn’t a matter of doing your
+own computing. Neither is publishing your own materials via a blog
+site or a microblogging service such as
+ <a name="index-Twitter">
+ </a>
+ Twitter or
+ <a name="index-identi_002eca">
+ </a>
+ identi.ca. The same goes for
+communication not meant to be private, such as chat groups. Social
+networking can extend into SaaS; however, at root it is just a method
+of communication and publication, not SaaS. If you use the service
+for minor editing of what you’re going to communicate, that is not a
+significant issue.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Services such as search engines collect data from around the web
+and let you examine it. Looking through their collection of data
+isn’t your own computing in the usual sense—you didn’t provide
+that collection—so using such a service to search the web is not
+SaaS. (However, using someone else’s search engine to implement a
+search facility for your own site
+ <em>
+ is
+ </em>
+ SaaS.)
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-e_002dcommerce-and">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-e_002dcommerce">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ E-commerce is not SaaS, because the computing isn’t solely yours;
+rather, it is done jointly for you and another party. So there’s no
+particular reason why you alone should expect to control that
+computing. The real issue in e-commerce is whether you trust the
+other party with your money and personal information.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-joint-projects-and">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Using a joint project’s servers isn’t SaaS because the computing
+you do in this way isn’t yours personally. For instance, if you edit
+pages on
+ <a name="index-Wikipedia-1">
+ </a>
+ Wikipedia, you are not doing your own computing; rather, you
+are collaborating in Wikipedia’s computing.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Wikipedia controls its own servers, but groups can face the problem
+of SaaS if they do their group activities on someone else’s server.
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-development-hosting-sites-and">
+ </a>
+ Fortunately, development hosting sites such as
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-Savannah-and">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-Savannah">
+ </a>
+ Savannah and
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-SourceForge-and">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-SourceForge-1">
+ </a>
+ SourceForge don’t pose the SaaS problem, because what groups do there
+is mainly publication and public communication, rather than their own
+private computing.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-multiplayer-games">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-games_002c-SaaS-and-multiplayer">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Multiplayer games are a group activity carried out on someone
+else’s server, which makes them SaaS. But where the data involved is
+just the state of play and the score, the worst wrong the operator
+might commit is favoritism. You might well ignore that risk, since it
+seems unlikely and very little is at stake. On the other hand, when
+the game becomes more than just a game, the issue changes.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-Google-Docs">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-Google-Docs-as-example-of">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Which online services are SaaS? Google Docs is a clear example.
+Its basic activity is editing, and Google encourages people to use it
+for their own editing; this is SaaS. It offers the added feature of
+collaborative editing, but adding participants doesn’t alter the fact
+that editing on the server is SaaS. (In addition, Google Docs is
+unacceptable because it installs a large nonfree
+ <a name="index-JavaScript-1">
+ </a>
+ JavaScript program
+into the users’ browsers.) If using a service for communication or
+collaboration requires doing substantial parts of your own computing
+with it too, that computing is SaaS even if the communication is
+not.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-sites-offering-multiple-services_002c-including">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Some sites offer multiple services, and if one is not SaaS, another
+may be SaaS. For instance, the main service of
+ <a name="index-Facebook">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-Facebook-and">
+ </a>
+ Facebook is social
+networking, and that is not SaaS; however, it supports third-party
+applications, some of which may be SaaS.
+ <a name="index-Flickr">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-Flickr-and">
+ </a>
+ Flickr’s main service is
+distributing photos, which is not SaaS, but it also has features for
+editing photos, which is SaaS.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-publication_002dand_002dcommunication-sites-and">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Some sites whose main service is publication and communication
+extend it with “contact management”: keeping track of
+people you have relationships with. Sending mail to those people for
+you is not SaaS, but keeping track of your dealings with them, if
+substantial, is SaaS.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If a service is not SaaS, that does not mean it is OK. There are
+other bad things a service can do. For instance, Facebook distributes
+video in Flash, which pressures users to run nonfree software, and it
+gives users a misleading impression of privacy. Those are important
+issues too, but this article’s concern is the issue of SaaS.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-_0060_0060cloud-computing_002c_0027_0027-avoid-use-of-term-1">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-_0060_0060cloud-computing_0027_0027-obfuscating-problems-posed-by">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ The IT industry discourages users from considering these
+distinctions. That’s what the buzzword “cloud computing”
+is for. This term is so nebulous that it could refer to almost any
+use of the Internet. It includes SaaS and it includes nearly
+everything else. The term only lends itself to uselessly broad
+statements.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The real meaning of “cloud computing” is to suggest a
+devil-may-care approach towards your computing. It says, “Don’t
+ask questions, just trust every business without hesitation. Don’t
+worry about who controls your computing or who holds your data. Don’t
+check for a hook hidden inside our service before you swallow
+it.” In other words, “Think like a sucker.” I prefer
+to avoid the term.
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-as-distinguished-from-other-network-services-1">
+ </a>
+ </p>
+ <a name="Dealing-with-the-SaaS-Problem">
+ </a>
+ <h3 class="subheading">
+ Dealing with the SaaS Problem
+ </h3>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-dealing-with-problem-of">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-call-to-action_002c-SaaS-threats">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Only a small fraction of all web sites do SaaS; most don’t raise
+the issue. But what should we do about the ones that raise it?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For the simple case, where you are doing your own computing on data in
+your own hands, the solution is simple: use your own copy of a free
+software application. Do your text editing with your copy of a free
+text editor such as
+ <a name="index-Emacs_002c-GNU-8">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-GNU_002c-GNU-Emacs-8">
+ </a>
+ GNU Emacs or a free word
+ <a name="index-processors-1">
+ </a>
+ processor. Do your photo
+editing with your copy of free software such as
+ <a name="index-GNU_002c-GIMP-1">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-GIMP-1">
+ </a>
+ GIMP.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But what about collaborating with other individuals? It may be
+hard to do this at present without using a server. If you use one,
+don’t trust a server run by a company. A mere contract as a customer
+is no protection unless you could detect a breach and could really
+sue, and the company probably writes its contracts to permit a broad
+range of abuses. Police can subpoena your data from the company with
+less basis than required to subpoena them from you, supposing the
+company doesn’t volunteer them like the US phone companies that
+illegally wiretapped their customers for
+ <a name="index-Bush_002c-President-George-W_002e">
+ </a>
+ Bush. If you must use a
+server, use a server whose operators give you a basis for trust beyond
+a mere commercial relationship.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ However, on a longer time scale, we can create alternatives to
+using servers. For instance, we can create a
+ <a name="index-peer_002dto_002dpeer-3">
+ </a>
+ peer-to-peer program
+through which collaborators can share data encrypted. The free
+software community should develop distributed peer-to-peer
+replacements for important “web applications.” It may be
+wise to release them under GNU
+ <a name="index-GNU_002c-GNU-Affero-General-Public-License-_0028AGPL_0029-1">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-Affero-General-Public-License-_0028AGPL_0029_002c-GNU-1">
+ </a>
+ Affero GPL, since
+they are likely candidates for being converted into server-based
+programs by someone else. The
+ <a name="index-GNU_002c-GNU-Project-8">
+ </a>
+ GNU Project is looking
+for volunteers to work on such replacements. We also invite other
+free software projects to consider this issue in their design.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In the meantime, if a company invites you to use its server to do
+your own computing tasks, don’t yield; don’t use SaaS. Don’t buy or
+install “thin clients,” which are simply computers so weak
+they make you do the real work on a server, unless you’re
+going to use them with
+ <em>
+ your
+ </em>
+ server. Use a real
+computer and keep your data there. Do your work with your own copy of
+a free program, for your freedom’s sake.
+ <a name="index-call-to-action_002c-SaaS-threats-1">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-SaaS_002c-dealing-with-problem-of-1">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-Software-as-a-Service-_0028SaaS_0029-_0028see-also-SaaS_0029-1">
+ </a>
+ </p>
+ <div class="footnote">
+ <hr>
+ <h3>
+ Footnotes
+ </h3>
+ <h3>
+ <a href="#DOCF49" name="FOOT49">
+ (49)
+ </a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Brad
+Stone, “Amazon Erases Orwell Books from Kindle,”
+ <cite>
+ New York Times,
+ </cite>
+ 17 July 2009, sec. B1,
+ <a href="http://nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">
+ http://nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html
+ </a>
+ .
+ </p>
+ </hr>
+ </div>
+ <hr size="2"/>
+