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Comment by AsyncAwait | Hacker News Reader

> Adding a draconic open source license is an unwise decision

AGPLv3 is just a license, it is not "draconic", nor "cancer", (despite what Ballmer wants you to believe), it simply represents an ethical/moral agreement with the ideology of software freedom and since it is their code, they are free to express what they believe via the appropriate license. Nobody is making them do it, nobody is forcing you to use it and nobody is demanding you agree with it, it was a free choice and is therefore as far from "draconic" as one can possibly be, unless you believe that everybody who doesn't subscribe to your worldview is "draconic" by definition.

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I think what fortytw2 was trying to say is that the AGPL is not a wise choice for software that wants to gain the most popularity and usage as possible since usage of AGPL licensed software is categorically banned (even more so than GPLV3) by a some of companies.

As an aside, one can certainly describe something as draconic(or whatever else) if one views it as such; it's just an opinion.

> I think what fortytw2 was trying to say is that the AGPL is not a wise choice for software that wants to gain the most popularity and usage as possible

Why should that be a laudable goal? Not all projects are megalomaniac.

Having just gone through a lengthy review process identifying a suitable license for our soon to be open-source software which has a commercial aspect, and selected AGPLv3, I'm very curious to know what companies have it "categorically banned". We did some research and didn't find that anyone had an issue with it. Whilst AGPL does open up come grey-areas which aren't as well understood as GPL the general reason to use it seems to be as part of a dual licensing scheme where companies with AGPL issues can simply purchase a non-transferrable limited MIT license or similar.

Can you give me any more info on your sources?

Google bans it for example: https://opensource.google.com/docs/using/agpl-policy/.

I would also be surprised if Apple (being so allergic to the GPLv3) used AGPLv3 software, though that's just speculation.

There's a perennial discussion of AGPLv3 here on hacker news. A surprising number of projects select it, then revert to something less toxic to corporations.

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