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Re: Licence question: using AGPL and Odoo proprietary modules on the same server

Re: Licence question: using AGPL and Odoo proprietary modules on the same server

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Re: Licence question: using AGPL and Odoo proprietary modules on the same server

by "Ivan Sokolov via Cetmix OÜ" <team@cetmix.com> - 08/09/2025 13:54:38
Internal communication: Once again, as proposed above, I would suggest to have licenses based on module nature:Core modules, eg widgets, api's, helpers - LGPL. Why? [...] ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​ ͏ ​

Once again, as proposed above, I would suggest to have licenses based on module nature:

  • Core modules, eg widgets, api's, helpers - LGPL. Why? Because it helps to widespread them being used as core parts in various deployments, including close-sourced. Pros: it builds vendors dependency forcing those non-OCA vendors to contribute to the OCA (well, at least part of them).
  • Business flow modules should stay AGPL for the very reasons mentioned by Pedro and Enric.

Bonus: we might consider selling a non-AGPL licenses to those, who would like to have some AGPL modules but cannot use them due to the license incompatibility. Pros: we can get money from that. Cons: there are a lot of them either, so this is something to be discussed separately. Anyway I would like to have this discussion opened.


Best regards,

photograph
Ivan Sokolov
 Cetmix Odoo Solutions
cetmix.com
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----- Original message -----
Date: Sep 8, 2025, 1:32:07 PM
From: Notifications
Subject: Re: Licence question: using AGPL and Odoo proprietary modules on the same server

Hello everyone,

You’re right that Odoo’s relicensing from AGPL to LGPL contributed to their ecosystem’s growth, but I think it’s important to recognize the context. The growth was not solely because of LGPL being “friendlier,” but also because Odoo SA introduced a dual licensing model: they offered parts of the code under a proprietary license and could directly capture revenue from that. This created a business incentive that supported their expansion.

In the OCA’s case, the situation is different:
  • If we moved from AGPL to LGPL, there would be no equivalent proprietary licensing model.
  • The benefits would mostly go to implementors who could build proprietary modules on top of LGPL community work.
  • The OCA itself would not receive revenue, nor would it strengthen the community commons — it would only dilute protections for contributors.
Also, the OCA can have legal issue because there are contributors that didn't sign the SLA, as happened with vertical-medical 8 years ago (https://github.com/OCA/vertical-medical/issues/183)

That’s why, for us, the decision isn’t only about adoption, but about ensuring contributors’ rights and the long-term sustainability of shared resources.

I agree with you that clearer legal guidance and better communication to customers are necessary, and we should keep pushing for that. But from my perspective, simply shifting to LGPL without a mechanism to capture value (like Odoo SA did) risks weakening the community without strengthening OCA in return. For that reason, I would prefer to leave the decision of the license on each individual when adding a new module.

Best regards,

El lun, 8 sept 2025 a las 13:11, Pedro M. Baeza (<notifications@odoo-community.org>) escribió:


--
Enric Tobella Alomar
CEO & Founder

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