Hello Lionel, I agree with what you said but let me just correct one point because I think these licensing things should really be taken seriously in general:
On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 5:58 AM, Lionel Sausin <[email protected]> wrote: > Le 10/07/2014 02:03, Axel Mendoza Pupo a écrit : > > My question are related to the license restriction that someone may have >> when the code from OpenERP/Odoo is used in a modified form to develop new >> features for another software. >> > I'm not a lawer but: > 1 - this is clearly "derivative work" of both the odoo module > 2 - it's admitted that modules are themselves derivative works of the core. > so AGPL applies to your code. > > Simply re-implement the AGPL part from scratch, i think it'd clear the > problem and should be easy enough for a single module. > Odoo SA themselves did that when they switched to AGPL, for small parts > which conflicting contributors refused to relicence. > Not to my knowledge. in 2009 they moved from GPL to AGPL and as you can see in that graph http://timreview.ca/ojs/february11/february11_daffara1.png you can always include GPL code (the contribs) in and AGPL software without asking anyone's permission because the AGPL still preserve the user guaranties of the GPL, it just adds an extra guarantee that the user will receive the source code even if the software is distributed online like a SaaS without binary distribution. If somebody did not agree with that at that time, they didn't have their contrib violated by the AGPL branch and they could very much start maintaining a pure GPL branch without the AGPL evolution and in fact this is exactly what the Tryton fork did. Now, during 2011, there have been an attempt (so 3 after 3 years of contribs under strict AGPL when OpenERP SA was still peanuts and largely supported by a community, without any contributor agreement of any sort granting else than AGPL) to change the AGPL license adding some extra non symmetric clause that would allow OpenERP SA to sell the right (in the Enterprise contract) to a 3rd party to not submit its code to the AGPL clause (the private modules thing). Well in that case, contributors were not asked anything and it was said that if somebody disagree they would rewrite (nice isn't it?) and no extensive rewrite was done either... So personally I would love to see that kind of clause removed, specially as it sets Odoo a bit aside from the OSI licenses and introduce a juridic risk that someday in the long future, a big company like SAP or whatever could use to attack the Odoo product or a company using it with these kind of licensing terms. If you see what happened with Oracle and Google for things that would be details compared to this, I wouldn't try that kind of thing if someday Odoo achieve some of its potential. That last 2011 move has been compiled in that blog post at the time http://version2beta.com/articles/a-new-openerp-product-and-license/ I like very much the OpenERP / Odoo project, but no sorry I cannot stand that kind of licensing approximations. We do open source because it's something we like, not because we are stupid. Today OpenERP SA received yet a new investment of 10 millions USD. What will happen if the business plan fail, just like it already failed with Openbravo or Compiere http://www.compieresource.com/2010/06/compiere-open-source-failed.html ? Should all the people who invest in OpenERP / Odoo expose themselves to licensing threats whenever the original founders may not be the ones that would decide for the software anymore? For me open source is meant to be safe, safer that proprietary software (even if they can be late o schedule). So this is the very reason I don't like these approximations. So I just wanted to clarify that point but aside from that I agree on all you said. Best regards. -- Raphaël Valyi Founder and consultant http://twitter.com/rvalyi <http://twitter.com/#!/rvalyi> +55 21 3942-2434 www.akretion.com
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