[ohf-licenses] Affero license doesn't work for hardware

[Greg London]

So, I finally got a chance to read through the GNU-Affero license

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/agpl-3.0.html

Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like it would be useful
for a hardware license. Rather than dealing with the
issue of non-distributed derivatives that the public
accesses through non-copyright-derivative means
(derivative on a server, users access output only)
(derivative in an asic vendor company, users access
physical hardware)
the license instead is worded to address the specific
medium of network access.

Section 13 says:

: 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

It seems a bit odd, given that the lessons learned in
coming up with the open source definition highlights
the issues of having a license predicated on a specific
individual technology or style of interface.

http://opensource.org/docs/osd

Oh well.

Anyway, given that the Affero license addresses the
issue by specifically calling out the style of interface
being a network interface, I don't think that license
will work as an open source license.

I think it still comes down to something like the
Apple license.

Either that, or try to get FSF to modify the Affero
license so that it closes the copyright-derivative
loophole without being limited only to network
interfaces.

Greg