4 ms·

Copyleft type licenses (like AGPL or GPL) are also business friendly. They just choose different business model. There was also a discussion on the topic previ

by adulau 16y ago

Copyleft type licenses (like AGPL or GPL) are also business friendly. They just choose different business model. There was also a discussion on the topic previously and especially how the non-copyleft licenses (like MIT or BSD-like) are not always contributing to the free software ecosystem: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1642140 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1642140

hippich 16y ago
Do you have case for using AGPL software in business. I really want to understand how it could be done.
- _delirium 16y ago
  Gitorious is one company run purely on AGPL software (though they wrote much of it themselves). They seem to think their main value proposition is the service and hosting, so don't much care about having the code itself open. The choice of AGPL seems to be to make sure that any competitors that start from their codebase have to use the same strategy. That's not as freedom-friendly as just letting anyone use it for any purpose, but at the very least, it doesn't seem less free than the usual SaaS strategy of keeping your server-side code completely closed (what their competitor GitHub does).
evgen 16y ago
Try naming a single business that uses AGPL. Claiming that AGPL is business friendly is pretty deceptive (i.e. it is business friendly provided that your business is not the sale of software or online services), but around here most people will see straight through the bullshit, chuckle a bit, and move on. The short version that everyone here who actually runs a business will tell you is that GPL is fine for most situations, but you should avoid anything that has the AGPL license for the core of your business unless you really have no other option.
- martey 16y ago
  Status.Net (raised over $2 million in funding) uses the AGPL. Their software is similar to Twitter (they run http://identi.ca http://identi.ca), but they seem to be targeting the enterprise market: http://status.net/enterprise-network http://status.net/enterprise-network If I made my living selling desktop software, the benefit of using BSD licensed libraries without contributing back to the community would be obvious. The GPL has a similar status among web companies. As a consumer, however, I appreciate the choices that AGPL software give me (e.g. hosting the software on my own server, adding or removing features, etc.).
  - hippich 16y ago
    I see status.net uses CC license?
- adulau 16y ago
  Affero (the A stands for Affero - http://www.affero.com/ http://www.affero.com/) was the first business to use it and they even designed the license. This is not a "traditional business" but the company still exists. Status.net (the company behind identi.ca) is relying on the AGPL and they got some funding. FooCorp (who is behind the libre.fm project) is also using the AGPL. The difference between the AGPL and GPL is somehow minor as this is just a standard GPL version 3 + the conveying modification for the network transport. It's funny how discussion about the AGPL is similar to the GPL misinformation propagated by Microsoft in the early 2000 : http://www.foo.be/photo/ms-pres-lux/img_0223r.jpg http://www.foo.be/photo/ms-pres-lux/img_0223r.jpg Software for an online service is just a small part of the overall business. So you still have competitive advantages with the infrastructure in place or your user base/community using your service.
- mark_l_watson 16y ago
  How about 10gen, the company that created and maintains MongoDB? MongoDB is released under the AGPL.

by adulau 16y ago

hippich 16y ago

Do you have case for using AGPL software in business. I really want to understand how it could be done.

_delirium 16y ago
Gitorious is one company run purely on AGPL software (though they wrote much of it themselves). They seem to think their main value proposition is the service and hosting, so don't much care about having the code itself open. The choice of AGPL seems to be to make sure that any competitors that start from their codebase have to use the same strategy. That's not as freedom-friendly as just letting anyone use it for any purpose, but at the very least, it doesn't seem less free than the usual SaaS strategy of keeping your server-side code completely closed (what their competitor GitHub does).

evgen 16y ago

Try naming a single business that uses AGPL. Claiming that AGPL is business friendly is pretty deceptive (i.e. it is business friendly provided that your business is not the sale of software or online services), but around here most people will see straight through the bullshit, chuckle a bit, and move on. The short version that everyone here who actually runs a business will tell you is that GPL is fine for most situations, but you should avoid anything that has the AGPL license for the core of your business unless you really have no other option.

martey 16y ago
Status.Net (raised over $2 million in funding) uses the AGPL. Their software is similar to Twitter (they run http://identi.ca http://identi.ca), but they seem to be targeting the enterprise market: http://status.net/enterprise-network http://status.net/enterprise-network If I made my living selling desktop software, the benefit of using BSD licensed libraries without contributing back to the community would be obvious. The GPL has a similar status among web companies. As a consumer, however, I appreciate the choices that AGPL software give me (e.g. hosting the software on my own server, adding or removing features, etc.).
- hippich 16y ago
  I see status.net uses CC license?
adulau 16y ago
Affero (the A stands for Affero - http://www.affero.com/ http://www.affero.com/) was the first business to use it and they even designed the license. This is not a "traditional business" but the company still exists. Status.net (the company behind identi.ca) is relying on the AGPL and they got some funding. FooCorp (who is behind the libre.fm project) is also using the AGPL. The difference between the AGPL and GPL is somehow minor as this is just a standard GPL version 3 + the conveying modification for the network transport. It's funny how discussion about the AGPL is similar to the GPL misinformation propagated by Microsoft in the early 2000 : http://www.foo.be/photo/ms-pres-lux/img_0223r.jpg http://www.foo.be/photo/ms-pres-lux/img_0223r.jpg Software for an online service is just a small part of the overall business. So you still have competitive advantages with the infrastructure in place or your user base/community using your service.
mark_l_watson 16y ago
How about 10gen, the company that created and maintains MongoDB? MongoDB is released under the AGPL.