Behind the X owner’s trolling is a years long obsession with the internet’s favorite encyclopedia, says Depths of Wiki creator Annie Rauwerda.
  • catgirl2005@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    Is there anything that stops Elon Musk from buying Lemmy or Mastadon? Even if everyone were to migrate over to the Fediverse, what stops these websites from being bought as well?

    • Thelaststandn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 years ago

      I don’t really know the legalitys, but there’s a few things in elons way:

      1. Whoever has control over Lemmy would have to be willing to sell it, pretty sure Elon couldn’t take over lemmy like he did twitter
      2. It’s open source, how/can does one even turn something like lemmy closed-source?
      3. If it was made closed source by Elon, what of the forks that already exist? Can anything be does to threaten their ongoing existence?

      I don’t know the answers to 2&3, but I’m pretty sure 1 holds true; Elon can’t buy something if the owner refuses to sell.

      • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        Lemmy cannot be made closed source due to the irrevocable perpetual license and the viral nature of GPL licenses, especially AGPL.

    • jtk@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      6·
      2 years ago

      That seems exactly like something Elon would try to do, just like the idiot that tried to takeover freenode. I’d love it if the creators of Lemmy and Mastodon were able to swindle some money from him.

    • FangedWyvern42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      Because it’s FOSS. You can’t buy open-source software. You can use it commercially, but you can’t buy it.

    • Sidyctism@feddit.deEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      The fact that lemmy and mastodon arent websites, they are collections of connected instances which are managed by individuals and collectives. Elon could set up his own instance, or try to buy all the existing ones, but that wouldnt stop others from setting up new ones as well. The lemmy website is just an aggregator, each instance has its own website as well.