Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by gopalv | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

gopalv

GNU AFPL?

Clause 13 is a real pain to deal with when exposing this over the network.

I guess the developer wants to sell a license (like the mysql java client GPL'ing).

Can't blame him, he needs to get paid.

View on HN

Hi, gopalv. What samspenc said. My understanding of the AGPL is that only the modifications made to the source code itself of the covered project would need to be opened up (or have a commercial license). Meaning that merely using InfiniSQL won't require you to open source your app. MongoDB has the same license BTW, and lots of people use it without being forced to open their code. And, yes, I want to get paid somehow--but the AGPL won't stop anybody from using my work how they see fit. But if they modify it and distribute it, then they'll have to comply with the license (or contact me directly for an alternate arrangement).

I fully understand what this means and I hope you do get calls about alternate licensing, but remember that people like me do not make these decisions.

I thankfully don't have to - this means I don't need to talk to lawyers about this.

Because AGPL took away the most important bit of unassailable ground I had to argue with when it came to deploying GPL - "Using this code implies no criteria we have to comply to, only if we distribute it".

Clause 12 and 13 - basically took that away from me completely.

Look, I'm not going to tell you what license to use.

But leave me enough room to complain that I have had trouble convincing people that we can use AGPL code in a critical function without obtaining a previous commercial license by paying the developer.

Hi, gopalv. I'm glad to talk to you further privately if you wish. You can go to InfiniSQL's site to send me your email, connect on LinkedIn, or whatever: http://www.infinisql.org/community/

I'm not too religious about licensing--if I can get early adopters/contributors, and so on, I'm willing to consider changing the license terms.

I'm looking for open doors.

Personally, I think the choice of AGPL is good. It enables you to give to the community and get useful community involvement, while allowing commercial companies to have proprietary forks (for a cost) as well as commercial support.

All the best!

Thanks!

MongoDB does this too. I personally think its not too bad - its free for whoever wants to use it, but if you want to modify and use it commercially, you do have to pay.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com