AGPL (was Re: Please try expo.debian.net)
On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 12:03:03PM -0400, Andrew Starr-Bochicchio wrote:
> Launchpad is most certainly free software (though it would have to be
> re-branded, the icons/images are not free). [0]:
>
> "Canonical Ltd ("Canonical") distributes the Launchpad source code
> under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPLv3)."
I can't see how someone can claim that AGPL is a free software license.
"Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose."
So you can run Launchpad only as a web site. You can't take a piece of its
code and use it somewhere else, since it would then have no way to advertise
itself and allow the download.
An example: many, many years ago I took several code paths for pty pair
creation on different platforms from GNU screen, and have used that code in
several unrelated projects since, some of these don't even have an user
interface at all. AGPL would made such an use impossible.
You can't even write a scripting interface for an AGPL work without passing
advertising and downloads through!
Another case: I use and even sometimes fix bugs in an AGPLed program written
by Marc Thoben, whom I otherwise really respect. Yet neither of the two
principal ways to interface with that program: an IRC bot and now also a
webpage, provide such a download. Both are ran by the very person that
imposed AGPL onto that program. So you have a case of the very creator of
the program who would be disallowed its use were he bound by his own
copyright.
--
1KB // Yo momma uses IPv4!
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