Problem statement

Some web sites follow unethical practices:

  • host proprietary software (eg microsoft.com)
  • run non-free JavaScript (JavaScript trap)
  • run software as a service (SaaS)
  • host content which is not broadly licensed

The second point is addressed by GNU LibreJS. Other points are not addressed. GNU IceCat users are still able to use SaaS services, download proprietary software, and read content whose licence is proprietary or not set.

Use cases include:

  • surfing the web
    • web search

Requirements

A solution needs to do the following:

  • disable JavaScript except scripts that are marked as freely licensed (LibreJS already does this)
    • users can complain to webmaster
  • show a warning when visiting SaaS services
    • should this follow a blacklist or a whitelist?
    • only do this when users start uploading files?
    • users can complain to webmaster this is useless, the webmaster won't shut down a SaaS service usually?
  • show a warning when downloading proprietary software
    • check [md5sum] hash?
    • keep a blacklist of proprietary software like a virus database?
    • users can complain to webmaster to release their software as free
  • show a warning when content is not broadly licensed
    • provide webmaster with a means to specify content licence using a meta tag or a licence attribute
    • separate licensing for photos than for the whole page if needed
    • users can complain to webmaster to release the content as free
  • perhaps provide free web search (a search engine that only crawls freely licensed resources)
    • uses API to retrieve content from websites such as wikipedia or stackoverflow

Contact