[License-discuss] For Discussion: GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 with NonCommercial Exception

[David Woolley]

On Mon, 2026-08-03 at 15:00 +0200, Stefano Maffulli wrote:
> On 8/2/26 18:21, Shao Kai via License-discuss wrote:
> >    1. Does the non-commercial exemption as defined in the
> > additional
> >       permission raise any concerns regarding OSD Section 6 (No
> >       Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor)?
> 
> Yes, unequivocally. It's stated in 
> https://opensource.org/licenses/common-reasons-for-rejection-of-licenses
> 

That was my immediate reaction, but thinking about it, the GPL V2 is
more nuanced. Whilst it requires non-commercial users to provide the
source code, it allows them an extra way of doing so:

"c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to
distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only
for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in
object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with
Subsection b above.)"

Also it is generally accepted that distribution within an organisation
is not to its employees, but to itself, as a corporate person, so there
is no real distribution, and there is no need to provide source code.

I haven't analyzed the Affero licence in respect of these cases.