"...The current generation of network services or Software as a Service can provide advantages over traditional, locally installed software in ease of deployment, collaboration, and data aggregation. Many users have begun to rely on such services in preference to software provisioned by themselves or their organizations.

"Network services are one of the fastest growing areas in modern software. However, while network services have much of the convenience of free software, only a minority are available under a free license. In fact, it was only last November that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) released the GNU Affero General Public License for network services.

"BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA—Monday, July 14, 2008— A new activist group called autonomo.us has launched an online presence to focus on issues of software freedom in network services..."

"...I'm going to talk about the AGPL 3.0, why it's important that we put effort into figuring out what freedom for different technologies means, and what the components of freedom for web services might be."

You probably rely on the services on your own private network -- wikis, mail servers, Web sites, and other applications you've installed. What happens when you have to leave the friendly confines of your network?

Network services are one of the fastest growing areas in modern software. However, while network services have much of the convenience of free software, only a minority are available under a free license. In fact, it was only last November that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) released the GNU Affero General Public License for network services.

"We recently published the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3. [...] This isn't a complete solution for bringing freedom to web services. Unfortunately, the current architecture that we use to build network applications is inherently unfriendly to users' freedom. Generally, all the code and data lives on someone else's server, under their control and out of yours. You can never be completely free in such an environment. However, AGPLv3 advances a vision of how freedom works in the computing environment of today and tomorrow..."

«Clipperz and Richard Stallman recently launched a joint call for action to bring freedom and privacy to web applications. [...] Clipperz and RMS urge web developers to adopt the new AGPL license and build their applications using a 'zero-knowledge architecture,' a framework for web services that has been derived from Clipperz online password manager.

The PasTmon passive traffic monitor keeps an eye on your network, recording which clients are interacting with which services, when and how long things took.