Hi, Yesterday I filed an ITP [1] to package a 3D game engine in Python, called PySoy [2]. The package is almost finished, but I'm facing a problem that I have to clarify before uploading it to Debian. The latest release (beta2) is GPLv3, but for next one (beta3) they're changing the license to AGPLv3 [3] (GNU Affero General Public License v3). There is some logic after that decision, as they're adding a Firefox plugin where game code runs entirely on a server (physics and OpenGL are run inside the Firefox plugin, the Python game code -the actual code that makes the game- is on the server). The AGPL is almost similar to GPL, but with a very significative difference: it extends copyleft rights to network users:
13. Remote Network Interaction; Use with the GNU General Public License. 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. This Corresponding Source shall include the Corresponding Source for any work covered by version 3 of the GNU General Public License that is incorporated pursuant to the following paragraph. Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, you have permission to link or combine any covered work with a work licensed under version 3 of the GNU General Public License into a single combined work, and to convey the resulting work. The terms of this License will continue to apply to the part which is the covered work, but the work with which it is combined will remain governed by version 3 of the GNU General Public License. This might have more implications than I am able to foresee right now, but it implies that you must give your modifications to whoever interacts with your program through the network, for example in a multiplayer game or a 3D instant messaging system. As it happens with GPL, AGPL extends to the whole program, not just the statically linked as LGPL does. I'm not exactly sure if it affects you sharing your changes in libraries underneath, such as libode or openal-soft, for example. This might be quite inconvenient (or not) for some people, but what I wonder is if freedom of usage is limited in practice by AGPL. Do you think AGPLv3 is DFSG-free? Thanks, Miry [1] http://bugs.debian.org/495172 [2] http://www.pysoy.org/ [3] http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/agpl-3.0.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
