Mixing AGPLv3 & non-FOSS code

The AGPLv3 license is a strong copyleft license which sets out quite a number of requirements to ensure that code remains free to its users. When the license requirements are mixed with non-FOSS requirements, this can result in conflicting requirements which end up with a questionable or potentially misleading result.

Section 7 of the AGPLv3 does allow specific “Additional Terms” to be set, but these are purposefully limited in scope to avoid conflict with the user rights provided by the license. This section later states the following:

All other non-permissive additional terms are considered “further restrictions” within the meaning of section 10. If the Program as you received it, or any part of it, contains a notice stating that it is governed by this License along with a term that is a further restriction, you may remove that term.

This often means that, following the license text, you could be within your rights to remove or ignore any extra “further restrictions” set by licenses mixed & provided alongside AGPLv3 code, but that is rarely the authors intent when done so. This can place the user (and project) in a legally questionable scenario regarding their actual rights and the authors potential reaction to users exercising their rights.

Generally, projects should not mix AGPLv3 code with licenses and additional terms which are outside the strict scope of the “Additional Terms” allowed by section 7 of the AGPLv3. It’s still possible to dual-license an AGPLv3 codebase, but distribution under the difference license options should be via distinct separate means with the license & rights of each clear to users.