Non-interactive Program with Affero clause
From GPLv3 Wiki
Suppose there's some program licensed with an Affero clause such as mentioned in (7d) that requires "the work contain functioning facilities that allow users to immediately obtain copies of its Complete Corresponding Source Code". Then I create a derivative work of it which is not an interactive program, but a completely non-interactive program with specified output--a 'grep' or 'sed' workalike, perhaps. But there was some large chunk of code from the Affero-licensed application which I found useful for this program.
How can such a program comply with a 7(d) requirement? Providing quine-like functionality when a special switch is provided (foobar --provide-source) would probably meet the letter of the requirement, but isn't practical. Could the program simply provide a URL where the source can be downloaded? Or provide instructions similar to section 3(b) of GPLv2? The current language doesn't seem to allow it.
- This is too much of a hypothetical. Are you familiar with the details of the Affero GPL? It's no more restrictive or impractical than the GPL currently is, only instead of an "interactive" clause it has a "network" clause. I don't think we're arguing about whether the Affero GPL is nice or not, but instead "Is it a free license that you think the GPL should be compatible with?" --ashawley 16:13, 3 June 2006 (EDT)
What if the requirement were rewritten to apply to a human (the person making the program available), rather than a restriction on the technical details of the program being written? As a human, I could easily satisfy the requirement to provide source to all the users of my program, even if it's not practical for the program to do this.
- There are already requirements by the GPL on making available the corresponding source by a host of methods (human or otherwise), but the condition to preserve interactive notices and commands is an additional mandatory requirement. --ashawley 16:13, 3 June 2006 (EDT)
