GPL License with clause for Web use?

[Alex Hudson]

On Wed, 2007-11-21 at 10:12 +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> Alex Hudson <home at alexhudson.com> writes:
> > The AGPL changes that; [...] (there is no "private").
> 
> Of course there is: I download the source code, I modify it, and I run it.
> That's still private.

The point is that it's not a distinction the license draws. If you run
it in such a way that other people have access to it - your housemates,
your co-workers, etc - they're entitled to source. If you run it on your
web hosting account, other people are entitled to source. 

If you want to avoid that liability - e.g., you have limited bandwidth
on your hosting account - you have to put in strict access controls
which prevent anyone except you from accessing the software. Hopefully
you have the skills to do that and it doesn't interfere with the running
of the software ;)

If the AGPL really did have a concept of "private", those scenarios
simply wouldn't come up, but it doesn't. 

Cheers,

Alex.