Reading AGPL

[mplanchard]

https://writing.kemitchell.com/2021/01/24/Reading-AGPL.html

[tannhaeuser]

This and kemitchell's previous installments are extremely helpful IMO.

Wrt AGPL though,

- unlike GPL, it hasn't stood in court (or has it, and in which jurisdiction?); which is kindof a biggie since there may be legal uncertainties and costs, to put it mildly; in particular

- I've heard the concern that, on top of the copyright/contract law debate mentioned, AGPL can't be applied to the maximum-viral/contagious degree desired by those who consider licensing their work under AGPL (forcing AWS to either publish their network provisioning stack under GPL, say, or cease using third-party AGPL software alltogether) because AGPL or any license cannot legally limit rights to third-party software.

Disclaimer: IANAL (4 semesters, though)

[kemitchell → tannhaeuser]

Drop me a line. kyle@kemitchell.com.

[arnon]

I've struggled to understand AGPL before, and our lawyers advised us to avoid it because they didn't fully understand it's implications either.

This is super useful!

[enriquto → arnon]

> our lawyers advised us to avoid it because they didn't fully understand

This seems to be a problem with your lawyers, doesn't it? Are there other legal text they don't understand?

[arnon → enriquto]

I agree, they weren't very good lawyers.

They'd prefer we don't do anything to reduce the risk.