[pabs3]

Correction: the AGPL only means that you have to provide the open source code to your customers (folks who interact with the service), not to everyone (unless of course the service is open to everyone). Of course those customers could throw the code up on GitHub but in practice they probably won't.

[MaxBarraclough]

Depending on pricepoint, the author of the original project could just become a customer of the spin-off project, and then publish the source for all.