> this is pretty egregious in that it removes freedoms
The AGPLv3 protects freedoms - the freedoms of the users and recipients of the Software and the License, including other developers. If you combine an Open Source license with the Commons Clause, that is no longer Open Source software, in my view. It's source-available, which is completely different. If a developer adds a Commons Clause to their Open Source license, they have removed freedoms more than any Open Source license ever could.
If you look at the OSI's Open Source Definition[0] it states:
> The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software [...]
That is completely incompatible with the Commons Clause and others who try to restrict commercial use.
> This article contains the biggest confirmations I've seen of my long-held stance that the AGPLv3 was never meant to prevent commercial use
Of course the AGPLv3 was not meant to prevent commercial use. It's an Open Source license - a requirement of such a license is that it must permit commercial use!
The AGPLv3 is very easy to comply with, it's just that so many are unwilling to do so, so people come away thinking the AGPLv3 was meant to prevent commercial use.
I'd recommend this article[1] which talks about this and several other the falsehoods people have come to believe about the AGPLv3.
> The AGPLv3 protects freedoms - the freedoms of the users and recipients of the Software and the License, including other developers. If you combine an Open Source license with the Commons Clause, that is no longer Open Source software, in my view. It's source-available, which is completely different. If a developer adds a Commons Clause to their Open Source license, they have removed freedoms more than any Open Source license ever could.
Sorry maybe it wasn't clear -- I'm not saying the AGPL removes freedoms, I'm saying adding the commons clause does.
> Of course the AGPLv3 was not meant to prevent commercial use. That would be incompatible with the OSI's Open Source Definition, making the AGPLv3 not an Open Source license. The AGPLv3 is very easy to comply with, it's just that so many are unwilling to do so, so people come away thinking the AGPLv3 was meant to prevent commercial use.
Well aware of this, didn't link to it directly but this was the main thrust of my article that I didn't link directly:
Freedom to sell commercially is indeed freedom, and one I support (selfishly, as I am working on building a cloud provider right now which is going to do so), and a bunch of startup/small software projects seem to be under the impression that AGPL is a magic ward against hosters of software.
The AGPLv3 protects freedoms - the freedoms of the users and recipients of the Software and the License, including other developers. If you combine an Open Source license with the Commons Clause, that is no longer Open Source software, in my view. It's source-available, which is completely different. If a developer adds a Commons Clause to their Open Source license, they have removed freedoms more than any Open Source license ever could.
If you look at the OSI's Open Source Definition[0] it states:
> The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software [...]
That is completely incompatible with the Commons Clause and others who try to restrict commercial use.
> This article contains the biggest confirmations I've seen of my long-held stance that the AGPLv3 was never meant to prevent commercial use
Of course the AGPLv3 was not meant to prevent commercial use. It's an Open Source license - a requirement of such a license is that it must permit commercial use!
The AGPLv3 is very easy to comply with, it's just that so many are unwilling to do so, so people come away thinking the AGPLv3 was meant to prevent commercial use.
I'd recommend this article[1] which talks about this and several other the falsehoods people have come to believe about the AGPLv3.
[0] https://opensource.org/osd
[1] https://drewdevault.com/2020/07/27/Anti-AGPL-propaganda.html