Affero General Public License
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Affero General Public License (or AGPL) is a free software license derived from the General Public License with an addition section to cover use over a computer network. It was written by Affero to allow the rights granted by the GPL to cover interaction with the copyrighted work over a network, such as the Internet, which the current version of the GPL (version 2) does not.
Colloquially the additional section requires that the complete source code be made available to any network user of the AGPLed work, typically a web application. For the legally precise description see the external link at the end of the article.
Relationship with the GPL
The AGPL was written with the approval of the Free Software Foundation, the organisation behind the GPL. However, the additional requirements of the license make it incompatible with the GPL version 2. This means that components covered by each license cannot be combined into a single work. The AGPL is intended to be upward compatible with the GPL version 3.
See also
- GNU General Public License
- List of software licenses
External links
- Affero General Public License
- AGPL FAQ
- Free Software Foundation supports AGPL press release
Categories: Computer law | Free software licenses | GNU project | Open source licenses | Copyleft licensing

