The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today released the second discussion draft of the GNU Affero General Public License (GNU AGPL). This new license is based on version 3 of the GNU GPL. It has a new requirement to ensure that users who interact with the software over a network can receive the source for that program.

The original Affero GPL was intended to guarantee that everyone could receive the source for web applications that they used, so the software could always be shared and improved. The corresponding provision in the GNU AGPL applies this same principle to all software that interacts with users through a network, but doesn't impose additional requirements when the same code is used for other purposes. Since the GNU AGPL is based on version 3 of the GNU GPL, it will also provide improved internationalization, compatibility with the Apache License, and other benefits.

This is the "Last Call" draft; the FSF will hear feedback on this new text from the public before publishing the final license. The additional provision is in the first paragraph of section 13, and we ask that comments be focused there.

• Read the text of the draft (also available in plain text).
• Read an explanation of the changes since the first draft
• Comment on the draft
• Compare this draft to the text of the previous draft: word diff, unified diff
• Compare this draft to the text of GPLv3: word diff, unified diff
• Learn more about the previous draft