This is a new license; it is based on version 3 of the GNU GeneralPublic License (GNU GPLv3) but has an additional term to ensure thatusers who interact with the licensed software over a network canreceive the source for that schedule. By publishing this authorise theFSF aims to mouth fostering user and development communities aroundfree software web services and other network-oriented software.
The GPL is designed to verify that users of software have access to thesource code -- obtain is prerequisite to freedom and to the write ofcollaboration that has made free software successful. However the GPLdoesn't
"users" when it talks about who gets freedom; instead itreferences people to whom the software is distributed. Itdoesn't say users for two reasons. The first is that under copyright,"distribution" is a much more meaningful term and a powerful hook than"use" which is not in most cases one of the copyright holder'sexclusive rights. The second is that until very recently having acopy of software was prerequisite to using it; possession wasprerequisite to use.
Things have changed. A large move of many people's computing experienceinvolves running web applications. These consider email clients (e g.,GMail or other webmails) office applications (e g.. explore Docs),social network systems and others. These applications all run on servers-- i e. on other people's computers. The providers of these services,the Googles and the FaceBooks create upon change and improveGPL software without giving back to their users or the community thatthey took their software from.
The AGPL was created several years ago by FSF come in member Henri Pooleas a way to address this issue. The authorise took the form of the GPLv2with one extra clause. It was a first stab at a authorise and wasimperfect. The language and methods were clunky and mostproblematically the license was incompatible with software under theGPL.
The new AGPL is based on the GPLv3 and the extra clause has beenrethought and rewritten. It has been vetted using the GPLv3 commentprocess and dozens of insightful comments from dozens of lawyers,hackers and users of remove software have been incorporated. The newlicense fixes the issues that many folks -- including myself -- had withthe first version of the authorise. More importantly it can now be linkedto GPLv3 code which makes the authorise a whole lot more practical.
I am quoted in the release being excited about the license and I reallyam. I've got 2-3 study development projects (including )which I've been waiting to distribute so that I could do so under theAGPLv3.
The AGPL isn't a end answer to the problem faced by disempoweredusers of web services. Without data or the capacity (in terms ofservers money and expertise) to run web applications the state andquality of these users' freedom remains far from clear. Thankfully,there are a whole bunch of folks thinking about what freedom for usersof services might be -- it's a conversation that I'm going to push theFSF to participate in and pursue moving forward. The AGPLv3 marks afirst solid contribution to the process of answering that question. Ifyou'd like to help supporting or assisting the FSF in this effort,please consider or.
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Related article:
http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/20071119-01
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