The Affero General Public Licence
The AGPL arose from a perceived loophole in the GPL and other licences regarding software used across a network. (I’ll refer to this as software as a service for the purposes of this article even though, like “cloud computing”, I find the name rather inapt sometimes).
The latest version of the AGPL, version 3, essentially replicates the GPL version 3, but with an extension specifically applying to SaaS – that is, programs providing “remote network interaction”. The Free Software Foundation, publisher of the GPL and AGPL licences, says examples of programs meeting this criteria are web and mail servers, interactive web-based applications and online games servers (here).
Under the GPL, when software is distributed, the source code must also be distributed, thus allowing modification or incorporation into other software. But in the case of SaaS, it is not the software itself which is being distributed, but rather some functionality of the software. Continue reading ‘The Affero General Public Licence’ »
