Making the GPL more scary

Posted Oct 19, 2018 17:00 UTC (Fri) by rriggs (guest, #11598)
In reply to: Making the GPL more scary by edeloget
Parent article: Making the GPL more scary

> I was under the impression that allowing another user to use your software freely was the end goal of all open source licences.

> Am I wrong?

I believe so. There are multiple goals for open source projects, which is why there are so many OSS license varieties. If that were the only goal, we would need only one license. However, licenses may also attempt to limit the author's liability, limit one's ability to redistribute modifications to the software, limit how one can use potentially trademarked names of software, etc. In the case of both the AGPL and now this one, the license attempts to impose requirements on the user of the software when they provide access to the functionality of modified versions of the software. One can say the same of GPL/LGPL in some respect.

I personally think the AGPL has overstepped a boundary a bit. But, at the same time, I can understand why it might be economically useful and a societal good. I do not yet see where Mongo's license provides a societal benefit.