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this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Why is lemmy licensed under the AGPL3? What prompted you to take that decision?
Most other Fediverse platforms use the same license. Its the only logical choice if you want to prevent corporations from taking your code and making a profit with it. AGPL is essentially the same as GPL, with the addition that code changes also need to be published if you provide the software on a server and not on a users own device.
I love that you guys use AGPL, the best license for networked software. This is exactly how Truth Social (the Donald Trump social site) was forced to release their source code, since it was just Mastodon, which is AGPL. The links to their sources are available here (warning, fash website link), but I do not know if they are actually compliant and up-to-date with whatever code changes they've made to it.
Of course, as we can see, AGPL is not about disallowing monetization, even by corporate actors. It's about giving back. A thing that reactionaries and big companies are exceptionally bad at doing. The AGPL is anathema to the all-consuming, anti-social goals of silicon valley tech companies. Consider Google's Anti-AGPL policy: https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/agpl-policy. Compare that to how they treat Android, which is Linux (GPLv2) with the entire userland stripped out and replaced with non-copyleft code so as to ensure their continued control over the devices once they sell them to you.
OK, I'm hopping off the soapbox, now ๐
Thanks for this. These companies sometimes make it really simple for us, by showing what they don't like. If they know what hurts their profits, then its likely in our best interest :)
Did Threads release their source code?
Should they? To my awareness that's all original code developed by Meta.
Really? Hmmm that's interesting and so needless. Thanks for enlightening me.
Its a good hard copyleft license, and since its used in a network setting, the AGPLv3 over the GPLv3.