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Since Version 6.0, ProjeQtOr has changed its license and switched from GLP V3 to AGPL V3. What does this change and why this change?
GPL and AGPL licenses are very close. GPL is the abbreviation for GNU General Public License. AGPL is the abbreviation for GNU Affero General Public License. It is also called GPL Affero. The GNU Affero General Public License (GNU AGPL) is a modified version of version 3 of the regular GNU GPL. It has only one additional requirement: if you run a modified program on a server and let other users communicate with it, your server must also allow them to download the source code corresponding to the modified version in operation.
So why this change? Simply not to be "steal" by a commercial company that would make some modifications, would propose its offer in SaaS mode and would invest its efforts in a purely commercial development. This company would benefit from years of work in the design, development and reliability of the product without ever having to contribute. This is absolutely not the way we conceive Open Source and we want to protect against such practices. With the AGPL license, a company acting in this way would be obliged to distribute the sources to its users, who would then be free to redistribute those sources to whomever they want and thus provide them to the community that could then freely integrate them into the original community version.
One point that can be ambiguous is the notion of "other users". Who does that include? In particular, if I modify the code within my company, am I obliged to make the source code available to internal users (employees of my company)? We wish to remove this ambiguity: for us NO.
If one refers to the license, it speaks of "public" distribution. We choose to concider that for us a use within a company is not public. It becomes so when the distribution is made to a third party. The company ProjeQtOr will never seek to know what happens internally within your company. So you can change the code of ProjeQtOr to adapt it to your specific need, potentially by bringing treatments that you want to keep confidential, we will not try to make you disclose this code. On the other hand, if you change the code to provide a service to others, for example by offering a service in SaaS mode, you enter the license scope and are required to distribute the source code to your users under the AGPL license.
As a summary :
| You want to... | Under GPL license, up to V5.5 | Under AGPL license, since V6.0 |
| use ProjeQtOr | You are free and can use the software as you wish | You are free and can use the software as you wish |
| change ProjeQtOr for your own use | You are free and can change the software as you wish | You are free and can change the software as you wish |
| change ProjeQtOr to deliver it to third party | You have to distribute your version under GPL license | You have to distribute your version under GPL license |
| change ProjeQtOr to propose hosted services in SaaS mode | You are free and do not need to redistribute the code you have changed | You have to distribute your version under GPL license |
We hope these explanations are clear.
NB : if you contributed to some coding and don't aggree with license change, contact-us.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
You will find a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program.
You can also see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
In any case, if you re-distribute this product you must :
Distribution also includes delivery even to one only customer and providing of services (hosting or SaaS mode).
Apart from the software itself and elements resulting from contributions available on the download page,
the data, images and documents available on this site are the property of the Company PROJEQTOR.
Any distribution or reuse without the explicit agreement of the company PROJEQTOR is prohibited.
This includes the documents and supports provided during services as part of our service offer (training or other).
ProjeQtOr moved from GPL to AGPL since V6.0. Read this article for more information.
