AGPL Affero General Public License
More info
- Creator
- Free Software Foundation
- Released
- Type
- License
- Spec
- gnu.org
GPL with a network clause: run the software as a service and you must publish the source of your modifications, even if you never distribute a binary.
GPL is triggered by distribution. Cloud services distribute nothing — the user talks to a server — which became known as the ASP loophole. AGPLv3 (2007) closes it: interaction over a network counts as distribution.
The effect cuts both ways. Many companies ban AGPL code internally for fear of contamination, which in practice turns the licence into commercial leverage — avoid the terms by buying a commercial licence. Grafana, Nextcloud and Mastodon use it.