[License-discuss] You need to pay to access AGPL3 scripts?

[David Woolley]

On 11/06/14 22:24, Ben Tilly wrote:
> The AGPL is supposed to avoid this issue.  Because now they have to
> acknowledge you, adn let you see their improvements.

Not really about freedom then.  They lose the freedom to hide their 
upgrades, but you don't.  The tactic may be within the rules, but it 
seems against the spirit.   I though the real intent of the AGPL was to 
ensure that users could see the enhanced code, rather than as a way of 
feeding back to a privileged originator.

In any case, the originator can only use a clean room re-implementation 
of the enhancements if they want to retain the privileged position of 
being able to charge for their code.  If they include the upgrades as 
is, they are now downstream of an AGPL contributor and must use the AGPL 
rules.