Re: Audacity has new administration

[Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>]

Hi,

Bone Baboon <bone.baboon@disroot.org> writes:

> My initial message in this email tread did not clearly communicate what
> the issues with Muse Group's new privacy policy for Audacity are.
>
> The two main issues are the on by default telemetry and that Audacity
> can no longer be used for any purpose contradicting freedom 0.
>
> # On by default telemetry
>
> On by default telemetry is being introduced to Audacity.  This does not
> comply with the No Malware section of the FSDG.
> <https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html>
>
> The on by default telemetry collects IP address information, system
> information and Audacity version information.
> <https://github.com/audacity/audacity/discussions/1225#discussioncomment-967178>
> <https://github.com/audacity/audacity/discussions/1225#discussioncomment-966782>
> <https://www.audacityteam.org/about/desktop-privacy-notice/>

Thanks for letting us know about this.  When the telemetry functionality
was first added a few months ago, they emphasized that it was disabled
by default.  Now it seems that they have changed their minds and intend
to enable some telemetry by default.

We'll need to keep an eye on this, to ensure that all telemetry is
disabled by default in Guix.

> # Freedom 0
>
> Audacity can no longer be used for any purpose.  Section 3 of the Muse
> Group's new privacy policy for Audacity
> <https://www.audacityteam.org/about/desktop-privacy-notice/> says:
>
>> 3 Minors
>>
>> 1 The App we provide is not intended for individuals below the age
>> of 13. If you are under 13 years old, please do not use the App.

I'm not a lawyer, but nonetheless I'm _highly_ confident that this
language in their (draft) privacy policy has no binding force.  By
publishing Audacity's source code under a free software license, they
have irrevocably granted the four freedoms to anyone who has a copy.
Any license that would allow the copyright owner(s) to restrict the four
freedoms is not a free software license.

Moreover, their privacy policy is irrelevant if they aren't able to
collect any information about us.  By disabling telemetry, we ensure
that their privacy policy is irrelevant to Guix users who do not
"opt-in".

Does that make sense?

    Regards,
      Mark

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