I am often asked to explain the reasoning behind the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 licensing, the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Enterprise Modules, as well as any derivative work. However, this is not that easy to explain, so I will try to be as clear as possible in this blog post, but I also expect a couple of comments and questions from contributors around the world and I will surely incorporate updates and/or corrections as needed.
玩嘉电竞下载注册 is Open Source Software and is licensed under the Affero GNU Public License Version 3 (AGPLv3) . For clarity’s sake, I will concentrate on 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Core, where source code is distributed and worked on in the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Github repository . This repo is covered by the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Contributor License Agreement (CLA) , which essentially assures that every developer gives all rights under copyright law to the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 legal entity, and in return includes a pledge that such code will always be released as Open Source.
AGPLv3 is a copyleft license, which means that any modification of the code is automatically licensed under AGPLv3. This is true for any distribution or – and that is the speciality about the Affero license – if the software is just made available for somebody to communicate with. As the Free Software Foundation explains , „if you run a modified program on a server and let other users communicate with it there, your server must also allow them to download the source code corresponding to the modified version running there.“ In the case of 玩嘉电竞下载注册, this means that whenever you make 玩嘉电竞下载注册 available for any usage on your server via the Internet you are required to provide any modified source code.
玩嘉电竞下载注册 has an integrated apps concept. This means that it can easily be extented with 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Apps. In fact, when you download 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Server or 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Community Edition you already get several included apps and via apps.owncloud.com you have access to 150+ additional 玩嘉电竞下载注册 applications from the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Community.
How does the AGPLv3 apply to those apps and any apps you write as extensions?
Very easily;
every 玩嘉电竞下载注册 app is treated as modified work
because the code from the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 core is always running in parallel of any such extensions.
From the beginning, when founding 玩嘉电竞下载注册 as a company, we expected people, particullary from large organizations aka enterprises, to expect something different. They want to keep modifications private, particullary as they often happen in the context of IT integration and would reveal other software and data center structures to the public. They also want to develop extensions (玩嘉电竞下载注册 apps) that they can keep to themselves and 3rd parties to be enabled to deliver additional 玩嘉电竞下载注册 apps, which can be kept private or can be sold using commercial licenses.
Our Enterprise Subscriptions provide to all customers the same 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Core AGPLv3 code licensed under the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Commercial License. This is commonly called „dual-licensing“.
Since 2012 the 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Commercial License has allowed this all to happen, and all of our customers customers and partners continue to have full access to all of our Source Code and Any modifications they make, can be kept private – if they choose so.
All of our Enterprise only modules are also shipped using this license, which means that full Source Code is available and can be freely modified without the need to publish. This gives our customers, partners and users across the globe the possibility to choose to either publish any and all modifications and extensions to the original 玩嘉电竞下载注册 Core, or purchase a Commercial License which means that this requirement is omitted!
