[the_mitsuhiko]

> The AGPL ensures that the community AGPL licensed code will always have to be open source, and that anybody else can use it too.

That's true in the sense that there will always be an AGPL version, but it's not true that "anybody else" can use it to. In many situations you need to acquire a non AGPL license from the original copyright holder to be legally able to use the software in certain environments. That's why CLAs are important so that there is always a copyright holder that can give you a non AGPL version.

[thisislife2]

If your business depends on some form of closed-source codebase, than yes, an AGPL codebase will not suit your need. But from an opensource developer perspective it doesn't matter. For example, if you release your source code under the more freer license (like BSD, MIT or Apache), you can indeed close source your code. But so can others. I can use your source code, add more features to it, and close source it. I would be under no obligation to share my code with you, while also having the right to use your code as I please. This is not so with the AGPL. An AGPL + CLA makes this explicit - a developer has to voluntarily give away this right with a CLA. (And this gives developers some additional leverage).

[the_mitsuhiko]

Unless you define Open Source developer as Hobby only licenses matter. I’m an Open Source developer and I want to be able to use software no matter the situation.