[parenthephobia]

That might be what some companies have in mind, but those companies are wrong to use the AGPL because that isn't what the license says. I don't really know how one could read the AGPL and think that it requires clients to be AGPLed.

The only difference between the AGPL and GPL, other than the name, is that the AGPL requires you to offer to provide the source of your modified version of the software to all of its users. In short: network interaction equals distribution.

It says nothing about what licenses may apply to any software that interacts with the AGPLed software over a network. Anyone that suggests otherwise is misleading you or are mislead themselves.

Edit:

Note that MongoDB's drivers are MIT-licensed because they are made "part of" the client software. (A)GPL virality would come into play for drivers incorporated into clients.

[reitanqild]

  Note that MongoDB's drivers are MIT-licensed
  because they are made "part of" the client
  software. (A)GPL virality would come into play
  for drivers incorporated into clients.

OK. Makes sense. I might have misunderstood in which case I feel I almost owe GNU some kind of apology. If I become convinced I can at least try to add that fact to later discussions about AGPL.

That said it seems more than one company thinks it is viral over the net (Odoo, OPA comes to mind) and I would really be interested if someone who really understands licenses would explain.

[icebraining]

Odoo thinks it is viral over the net? I've never seen that argument. It was only viral to modules running on the Odoo server. If you used XML-RPC to talk to it over the net, I don't think Odoo S.A. would claim you had to distribute your code.

[reitanqild]

Possibly I'm wrong again. Actually happy about it.

If the network part of AGPL only affects the original AGPL software then it even kind of makes sense although I still wouldn't use it myself except as an extortion scheme :-P

[icebraining]

Well, I can't say I agree with your position on the AGPL. But as a side note, Odoo has recently been re-licensed as LGPL, so one can now distribute proprietary modules for it (and even sell them on the official Store).