Let's Recommon IT

Freedom in the Cloud: Software Freedom, Privacy, and Security for Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing

Moglen, Eben (2010). Talk at the Internet Society New York chapter (ISOC-NY), February 2010. Transcript: Software Freedom Law Center.. Link

Threads: Privacy, Open source, Liberatory tech

Summary

Argues that the client-server architecture of the web, combined with centralized “cloud” services, turned free software’s victory into a privacy defeat. Users run free software on their own machines, but their data and logs live on someone else’s server. Moglen proposes cheap, small personal servers (“plug servers”) running free software in people’s homes, federating with each other so that services like social networking can work without a central company. The talk led directly to the FreedomBox project.

Why it’s useful here

  • The origin text for self-hosting as a privacy strategy, and the clearest statement of why this blog’s guides exist.
  • Connects the open-source thread to privacy: free software isn’t enough if the server is somebody else’s.
  • Federation of small home servers is the same polycentric model as the Fediverse and Griziotti’s “situated” infrastructure.

Key ideas

  • Free software on the client, surveillance on the server: the “log-in-the-cloud” problem
  • Plug servers / FreedomBox: cheap, small, home-based servers
  • Federation instead of centralization
  • stallman-2002-free-software-free-society.md
  • doctorow-2023-internet-con.md
  • ostrom-2010-beyond-markets-and-states.md

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