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 no

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.