this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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But...if it's a service, how can it be FOSS?
I said FOSS friendly. Hellotux.com is a good example, they are a little family owned embroidery shop that uses only FOSS software to run their embroidery machine patterns.
They make merch for various FOSS projects and Linux distros.
Thanks for the link. They're even based in the European Union, so no extra fees (for me).
Sorry, it seems that I didn't get the "friendly" part.
No prob!
Take that, AGPL!
The service may use a FOSS software, but the service itself can't be FOSS!
Read section 13 ;)
This?
Yup.
You can't read just pieces of it.
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
A service can't be FOSS for definition since it's missing the last "S" Software! ...at least for my knowledge! 🤷🏻♂️
Would the service not be using software though? I've just woken up so bare with me here (so I could just be seeing/interpreting this all wrong), but I thought the AGPL was somewhat(?) intended to be used for *aaS ("Something"-as-a-Service) types of deals. MongoDB for an example (though they do not use AGPL anymore AFAIK) is a service where they host managed Mongo databases for you - the AGPL part came in to play in regards to making the actual MongoDB server-side software source available.
Or I suppose using OP's post as an example, whatever software they're using to actually facilitate accepting online print jobs and dispatching it (and the various processes in between) to their printers potentially.
They switched to a custom license they call SSPL which is the AGPL/GPLv3 but with a modified sections 13 that attempts to extend viral copyleft even further.
(In my (unprofessional) opinion, it's a bad license but not unfree.)
Ah right, I remember now - that made quite a storm when they did that switch (as is usually the case when companies switch from a well-respected OSS license to something... not so respected).
A company can use an AGPL software, but the company itself can't be AGPL. AGPL is a license for software (for my knowledge), so it can't be associated to a company or a service. A company could be "FOSS friendly" as the OP mentioned, but not FOSS.