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by phoenk 1028 days ago
> Which is generally undesirable for commercial projects; especially early in their lifecycles when bugs may be present and would be best kept private until the project has been more battle-tested.

Copyleft only kicks in on redistribution. If you're only testing internally, you don't need to distribute source code. It's only once you distribute that software that you also need to distribute source.
2 comments
tzs 1028 days ago
> Copyleft only kicks in on redistribution

That used to be true, but AGPL changed that. Now it can kick in if you let others interact with the program on your computer.

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CRConrad 1019 days ago
Because that arguably is distribution.
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erhaetherth 1028 days ago
What counts as 'distribution'? If the public can connect to my server, do I have to share my server code?
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littlestymaar 1028 days ago
Depends on the actual license: if it's regular GPL, the answer is no. If it's AGPL, then yes.
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jj999 1028 days ago
Say I use a software with AGPL as license on my server. If my server doesn't output anything AGPL-licensed to its clients, where is the distribution? If there is no distribution, how can the AGPL be enforced?
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littlestymaar 1028 days ago
> If my server doesn't output anything AGPL-licensed to its clients,

The IP (intellectual property) of the code has no relationship whatsoever with the IP of the content being served by the served.

> where is the distribution?

You setting up a production server counts as “distributing the service” in AGPL's definition, as AGPL is aimed directly at the SaaS business model.

So if you use an AGPL software on your server, you need to provide the source code (including any changes/customization you've made) to your users. BTW this is a common misconception with GPL, nobody forces you to publish the code in public like on github or anything, it could be behind a login form reserved to your customers only. But you need to give them to your customers under the same AGPL license, so if they want to publish it on github themselves, or fork it and make a business out of it, they can.

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benj111 1028 days ago
Depends on the license.

Most don't require it, agpl3 does.

(Edit Agpl3)

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funcDropShadow 1028 days ago
No.
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