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This does not match my understanding. The AGPL does not include any linking exception, so if I include a 500 line JSON parser in my 5 million line app, and that

This does not match my understanding. The AGPL does not include any linking exception, so if I include a 500 line JSON parser in my 5 million line app, and that JSON parser is AGPL licensed, then all 5 million lines are considered to be "based on" the JSON parser, and all 5 million lines must be made available under the AGPL. This is true even if I don't modify a single character of the parser. Am I wrong?

bluGill 3y ago
Right, LPGL and AGPL are very different things and OP seems to have them confused. AGPL and GPL do have a linking exception, but only for those two licenses and nothing else. (at least not as I read it - I'm not a lawyer)
- pritambaral 3y ago
  Plus, a copyright owner can supply additional linking exceptions.
  - bluGill 3y ago
    Then it isn't a pure license and lawyers have to look even harder to ensure all is correct.
    - pritambaral 3y ago
      Idk, Java's Classpath Exception seems pretty "pure" for a license. Also pretty simple.
- 2Gkashmiri 3y ago
  where is virality of agpl and gpl written?
pmontra 3y ago
You're probably right, there is no LAGPL https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#AGPL https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#AGPL One could add that as an extra clause. It's not easy but one should always recursively check the licenses of every dependency. If one doesn't, one can't even enforce a ban on AGPL software because it might slip into a project deep inside the node_modules directory or the equivalent in that code base. A simple implementation could be looking for LICENSE files or files containing some keyword. If the file matches the standard licenses you know what they are. If they don't, they could be custom licenses and should be checked.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  To be fair, it's not yet clear from the courts perspective what constitutes a derivative work in the world of software. There's a not-insignificant possibility that a future court decision will give a definition for "derivative work" in software that erases the difference between the LGPL and GPL. IMO, it's even somewhat likely. It's entirely unclear why the legal system would care whether something is statically linked or dynamically linked with regards to interpreting derivative works in software, so the question would likely boil down to simply "does linking a library make the application a non-fair use derivative work of the library"? If no, then there is no difference between the LGPL and GPL. If yes, the status quo remains.
2Gkashmiri 3y ago
please share where the "virality" of agpl is written?

bluGill 3y ago

Right, LPGL and AGPL are very different things and OP seems to have them confused. AGPL and GPL do have a linking exception, but only for those two licenses and nothing else. (at least not as I read it - I'm not a lawyer)

pritambaral 3y ago
Plus, a copyright owner can supply additional linking exceptions.
- bluGill 3y ago
  Then it isn't a pure license and lawyers have to look even harder to ensure all is correct.
  - pritambaral 3y ago
    Idk, Java's Classpath Exception seems pretty "pure" for a license. Also pretty simple.
2Gkashmiri 3y ago
where is virality of agpl and gpl written?

pmontra 3y ago

You're probably right, there is no LAGPL https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#AGPL https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#AGPL One could add that as an extra clause. It's not easy but one should always recursively check the licenses of every dependency. If one doesn't, one can't even enforce a ban on AGPL software because it might slip into a project deep inside the node_modules directory or the equivalent in that code base. A simple implementation could be looking for LICENSE files or files containing some keyword. If the file matches the standard licenses you know what they are. If they don't, they could be custom licenses and should be checked.

OkayPhysicist 3y ago
To be fair, it's not yet clear from the courts perspective what constitutes a derivative work in the world of software. There's a not-insignificant possibility that a future court decision will give a definition for "derivative work" in software that erases the difference between the LGPL and GPL. IMO, it's even somewhat likely. It's entirely unclear why the legal system would care whether something is statically linked or dynamically linked with regards to interpreting derivative works in software, so the question would likely boil down to simply "does linking a library make the application a non-fair use derivative work of the library"? If no, then there is no difference between the LGPL and GPL. If yes, the status quo remains.

2Gkashmiri 3y ago

please share where the "virality" of agpl is written?