this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It's a shame the strategy is now failing because software as a service is so popular. Nothing in the GPL forces you to distribute your changes if you don't distribute the program. So just put the program on a webserver and let users interact through an API and hey presto, steal as much GPL code as you like.

Everyone crucified MongoDB when they tried to create a licence that prevents this, and FSF have declared that the problem can't be solved with licences and everyone just has to boycott non-free software (good luck!).

End of free software as we know it, IMHO.

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Wasn't the Affero GPL (AGPL) created exactely to enforce copyleft in a SaaS environment?

Quoting from the GNU website:

[The AGPL] has one added requirement: if you run a modified program on a server and let other users communicate with it there, your server must also allow them to download the source code corresponding to the modified version running there.