Comment by timmaxw | Hacker News Reader

Comment by timmaxw | Hacker News Reader

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From reading your other comments in this thread, it seems like you have misunderstood what the AGPL does. If you modify RethinkDB and run the modified RethinkDB server as part of a public-facing web app, you must release the code for your modified RethinkDB server to the community. But you have no legal obligation to release the rest of your web app to the community. Writing a web app that connects to RethinkDB over the network doesn't count as "modifying" the RethinkDB source code, so most RethinkDB users would never have to release any source code.

You've probably heard that the difference between the GPL and the AGPL is whether they apply to access over a network or not; but you seem to have misinterpreted how that works. The GPL says that if you modify GPL-licensed software and distribute compiled binaries to users, you must also distribute the source code under the GPL. The AGPL says the same thing as the GPL, except that making the modified software available over the network is treated the same as distributing the modified software as a compiled binary.

> From reading your other comments in this thread, it seems like you have misunderstood what the AGPL does.

I think partially that's caused by convoluted and imprecise language in the AGPL. E.g what clause 13) means for something like a database product is pretty much unclear.

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html :

> Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version by providing access to the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge, through some standard or customary means of facilitating copying of software. This Corresponding Source shall include the Corresponding Source for any work covered by version 3 of the GNU General Public License that is incorporated pursuant to the following paragraph.

> it seems like you have misunderstood what the AGPL does.

I've read the AGPL license. I disagree with your interpretation.

It''s not an interpretation. It's what the license does.

Your interpretation also disagrees with the interpretation, and explicitly stated goals, of RethinkDB itself:

https://rethinkdb.com/faq/

> The RethinkDB server is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. The client drivers are licensed under the Apache License v2.0.

> We chose to release the client drivers under the Apache License v2.0 to remove any ambiguity as to the extent of the server license. You do not have to license any software that uses RethinkDB under AGPL, and are free to use any licensing mechanism of your choice.

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