Re:Death of an open-source business model
by GordonS on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @02:07PM
(#25362870)
It's not only about money though, it's also about megacorps extending the code but keeping that code to themselves, not contributing back.
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Re:Death of an open-source business model
by brandmeyer on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @02:25PM
(#25363211)
AGPL does help with this. An early example was when Google's search interface answered unit conversion queries using GNU Units. They fixed a bug internally and didn't flow the bug back upstream. Since they weren't distributing Units, but were only executing it as a service, their behavior was strictly conforming to the letter of the GPL. The failure to respect the spirit of the GPL was a factor in AGPL's development.
AGPL code is strictly forbidden for use inside the company now, partially because they consider private modifications to open-source software to be a competitive advantage.