Boston, Massachusetts, USA – Tuesday, March, 19th, 2002 – The
Free Software Foundation (FSF) announces support for and invites
public comment on the first public license designed to protect
software distributed as Web services: the Affero General Public
License (AGPL). The AGPL combines the GNU General Public License
(GNU GPL) V2 with one additional provision to address software used
by the public over a network. The new provision enables the author
to ensure that users will have the right to use, study, copy,
modify, and redistribute that software, by providing a mechanism
for downloading the source and restricting the removal of the
mechanism.
The FSF has worked since its inception in 1985 to promote
freedom for computer users to share and change software. In
January, 1989, the FSF released the GNU GPL Version 1. It empowered
free software developers by providing a mechanism which ensured
that all users be entitled to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute the software.
The FSF modified the license in 1991 to meet changes in
technology and business, with the goal to continue the protection
of users’ freedoms. The license has since been adopted by thousands
of software developers, from individuals to large organizations
such as IBM (NYSE: IBM).
Eben Moglen, board member and general legal counsel to the Free
Software Foundation, said: “We are eager to solve problems
experienced by free software companies, like Affero, who are
exploring new business models and meeting new challenges that
threaten the freedom of software.”
Affero is delivering a new online service which empowers members
of virtual communities to recognize and reward positive
contributions with feedback and donations to non-profits and the
causes they support. The company, committed to the idealism
embodied in the GNU GPL, requires full protection of software
freedom for their user and partner community. Because Affero’s
service is run over a network by their users, Affero needed the
additional provision to the GNU GPL. The FSF worked with Affero to
address the licensing requirements for their business model and is
considering including this additional provision in the upcoming
version of the GNU GPL 3.0 and is inviting public comment.
Affero’s software enables any user to download its complete
source code on any screen in the user interface. The new licensing
provision protects the removal of this feature, ensuring that the
existing software and any derivative works continue to be available
to the general public under the same terms as the original work.
“As an advocate for the individual, full access to Affero’s source
code is essential to our service” comments Henri Poole, President
of Affero. “We are building tools to reward sharing and enable more
effective community dialogue, and these communities and their
members should be fully empowered to run, copy, distribute, study,
change and improve the software. With new Web delivered services,
we need a license which will weld the virtual door open.”
For full text of the Affero General Public License, please
visit:
http://www.affero.org/oagpl.html
Public comments about the Affero General Public License can be
sent to: agpl@fsf.org
Copyright (C) Free Software Foundation, Inc., and Affero,
Inc.