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Both versions of the AGPL were designed to close a perceived application service provider "loophole" (the "ASP loophole") in the ordinary GPL, whereby using but not distributing the software, the copyleft provisions are not triggered. Each version differs from the version of the GNU GPL on which it is based in having an additional provision addressing use of software over a computer network. The additional provision requires that the complete source code be made available to any network user of the AGPL-licensed work, typically a Web application. The Free Software Foundation has recommended that the GNU AGPLv3 be considered for any software that will commonly be run over a network. The Open Source Initiative approved the GNU AGPLv3 as an open source license in March 2008 after Funambol submitted it for consideration. The terms "Affero clause", "Affero requirement" and "Affero provision" are occasionally used to refer generically to free software/open source licensing provisions requiring availability of source code when licensed software is deployed as a network service. |