4 ms·

So, if I understand the license correctly, anything you produce with the product becomes AGPLed and distributable to the users? That’s crazy. That’s like sayi

So, if I understand the license correctly, anything you produce with the product becomes AGPLed and distributable to the users? That’s crazy. That’s like saying every Word doc I produce is now AGPLed. Or do I misunderstand something?

hairofadog 5y ago
The software. Not the content.
- randombits0 5y ago
  So what was modified? Anything the author could see would be “content”.
  - hairofadog 5y ago
    My guess would be CSS, JavaScript, and that sort of thing. It's possible they did some actual engineering work; if it was me, I would be concerned about people trying to bring the site down. I would guess they're also trying to make it a fundraising vehicle, so maybe some changes related to that? I'm not familiar with the Mastodon codebase so it's difficult to speculate but these would be my guesses.
  - woodruffw 5y ago
    > So what was modified? Anything the author could see would be “content”. Modifications to views, models, stylesheets, &c. would all fall under the AGPL's definition of source code and would be considered sufficient for triggering the distribution clause.
woodruffw 5y ago
> Or do I misunderstand something? The AGPL is identical to the GPL, but with one additional clause: if you use the modified software to provide a networked service (like a website), then you must distribute your modifications. That's all. You can use AGPL'd software to produce content without fear that that content will be encumbered, since you're not providing a networked service through that content. That's why your documents are safe, even in the (unlikely) event that your word processor is AGPL.
- ourcat 5y ago
  Out of interest, what's to stop them publishing some 'version' of the modified code, but actually running a different version on their servers? Would that be easy to detect?
  - woodruffw 5y ago
    > Out of interest, what's to stop them publishing some 'version' of the modified code, but actually running a different version on their servers? Would that be easy to detect? That depends on what you mean by "detect" -- there's an large body of Computer Science research dedicated to program attestation, i.e. enabling a user to verify that the program (or results of a program) derives directly from some source. But it's far from a solved problem in the general case. Less formally, that's what the legal system is for: if the copyright holder suspects that the published source code is different from the source code that's being run by the service, then they're perfectly within their rights to take the service provider to court and attest, under the penalty of law, to their compliance.
  - totony 5y ago
    >Out of interest, what's to stop them publishing some 'version' of the modified code, but actually running a different version on their servers? The law >Would that be easy to detect? No

hairofadog 5y ago

The software. Not the content.

randombits0 5y ago
So what was modified? Anything the author could see would be “content”.
- hairofadog 5y ago
  My guess would be CSS, JavaScript, and that sort of thing. It's possible they did some actual engineering work; if it was me, I would be concerned about people trying to bring the site down. I would guess they're also trying to make it a fundraising vehicle, so maybe some changes related to that? I'm not familiar with the Mastodon codebase so it's difficult to speculate but these would be my guesses.
- woodruffw 5y ago
  > So what was modified? Anything the author could see would be “content”. Modifications to views, models, stylesheets, &c. would all fall under the AGPL's definition of source code and would be considered sufficient for triggering the distribution clause.

woodruffw 5y ago

> Or do I misunderstand something? The AGPL is identical to the GPL, but with one additional clause: if you use the modified software to provide a networked service (like a website), then you must distribute your modifications. That's all. You can use AGPL'd software to produce content without fear that that content will be encumbered, since you're not providing a networked service through that content. That's why your documents are safe, even in the (unlikely) event that your word processor is AGPL.

ourcat 5y ago
Out of interest, what's to stop them publishing some 'version' of the modified code, but actually running a different version on their servers? Would that be easy to detect?
- woodruffw 5y ago
  > Out of interest, what's to stop them publishing some 'version' of the modified code, but actually running a different version on their servers? Would that be easy to detect? That depends on what you mean by "detect" -- there's an large body of Computer Science research dedicated to program attestation, i.e. enabling a user to verify that the program (or results of a program) derives directly from some source. But it's far from a solved problem in the general case. Less formally, that's what the legal system is for: if the copyright holder suspects that the published source code is different from the source code that's being run by the service, then they're perfectly within their rights to take the service provider to court and attest, under the penalty of law, to their compliance.
- totony 5y ago
  >Out of interest, what's to stop them publishing some 'version' of the modified code, but actually running a different version on their servers? The law >Would that be easy to detect? No