[Koha] Proposal To Switch Koha's License to GPLv3 and AGPLv3 or AGPLv3

[Chris Nighswonger]

 On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 10:37 PM, Lars Wirzenius <lars at catalyst.net.nz>wrote:

> * AGPLv3 is a variant of GPLv3. As Chris said, the main difference is
> that users of the program will need be given access to the source of the
> actual running program. That includes anyone using the OPAC, not just
> librarians. Anyone running unmodified Koha can just point people at the
> download.koha-community.org (or Debian or wherever they installed it
> from). Anyone running a modified Koha will need to provide the source
> themselves, although it might be possible to do that as a patch, to
> avoid excessive bandwidth costs. However, bandwidth costs can probably
> be reduced by, say, using bittorrent.
>

Paragraph 13 of the AGPLv3 reads, in part, thus:

"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."

The wording used here is "a network server" (emphasis on the indefinite
article and broad terminology) which does not necessarily
imply either the server running the software, or even any server
located on the network of the entity running the software. A public
git server containing a repository kept current with the changes made
by that entity would clearly qualify as "a network server." in this
context. Ie. github or some other hosting repository could be used
which represents little to no cost on the part of the entity. Or
(better yet) simply ensuring that all such modified code is immediately
contributed to the main code base would also seem to satisfy this
requirement.

Kind Regards,
Chris
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