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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
Therp, Tom Blauwendraat
- 13/09/2025 10:09:52
Nicely explained Graeme, makes it all the more clear.

One question though: how do you then see the case of a custom module having to depend on an Enterprise OPL module as well as an OCA AGPL module? What license would that module need to have, and is it legal? (Not talking about redistribution here, just building such a module and installing it on client's system)

13 sep. 2025 00:32:02 Graeme Gellatly <notifications@odoo-community.org>:

For me AGPL is the best license. IMHO it should be the license choice for everything including Odoo CE.

For clients it is the best (despite all the FUD in this email chain). The simple reason is clause 9, no requirement to accept as they are not propagating or modifying. This renders clause 13 moot which is what everyone gets their knickers in a twist about. Way back when in 2015 we talked to a lot of people including the author of AGPL, engaged specialist lawyers etc this was the basis that you see in our current policy. Furthermore, insofar as a partner/developer develops dependent modules, they are now bound to provide their client the source code, even though client is not required to accept licence, developer is. So client is even further protected and avoids lockin.

For (at least open source minded) partners/developers it is the best. You can develop extensions, do modifications and convey them to your client, along with source and yes it is licensed AGPL. But if someone extends your work and puts on App store you have some protections. It allows the software to grow and evolve and encourage contribution. Whats more is you can extend LGPL without fear the LGPL author will take your contributions. OpenOffice vs LibreOffice success is testament to that.

For Odoo it would be best. It would protect them from SaaS startups under clause 13. Now I hear you say, but enterprise is incompatible so it must be LGPL. This is simply not true, insofar you believe that Odoo correctly relicensed and owns copyrights to all the source. All they needed to do was dual license.

So why do we end up with emails like this, Odoo's decision etc. Because SaaS providers, and vendors like Microsoft have done such a good job of spreading FUD, a lot of which is repeated here that everyone is afraid of it, when it should be embraced. Literally the only people that should fear AGPL is unscrupulous SaaS providers and public for sale app developers. 

Insofar as clients need protections around "proprietary code" being given to other people, that is a contractual issue between them and their partner. But let's say your client has really bought the FUD, LGPL is still a bad choice because it forces client acceptance, GPL would be better which is basically the AGPL without network clause.

On Sat, Sep 13, 2025 at 9:22 AM Enric Tobella Alomar <notifications@odoo-community.org> wrote:
Sure,

If I remember properly, we have 3 repositories that are mainly LGPL: DMS, EDI-Framework and Queue Job

I will take EDI-Framework as a base as it has several modules in the repo. It has 17 modules in 18 and it as been in its repo for 5 versions for a total of 197 PRs. this makes an average of 39 PRs for each version. Also, it has 49 contributors

On the other hand I will use helpdesk as it has a similar number of modules in 18 (17) and it is completly AGPL. It has been there for 9 versions for a total of 686 PRs, that makes an average of 76 PRs for version with a total of 120 contributors

It is true that EDI-Framework has some special cases like the complexity of components and so on, but with similar sizes in number of modules we can see quite a difference in number of contributors and PRs done.

I know that correlation doesn’t imply causation (spurious relationships are one of the first fun lessons in statistics), but in my view, this makes it quite clear that licensing alone is not the decisive factor in how contributors engage with a project.

Kind regards

El vie, 12 sept 2025 a las 21:57, Frederik Kramer (<notifications@odoo-community.org>) escribió:

Hi Enric,

ok, i obviously didn't recall this fact. In order to make this comparison stable, we should find comparable siblings of those to by any stable internal complexity measure (maybe McCabe or Halstead is enough for now) and than compare the contributions (again by stable measures) over time

Best Frederik

Am 12.09.25 um 21:41 schrieb Enric Tobella Alomar:
Hi Frederik,

Thanks for laying out your thoughts so clearly.

I agree with the idea of experimenting before making real changes, but I think we need to be cautious with the assumption that moving from AGPL to LGPL automatically results in higher adoption and more contributions. We already have a couple of real-world “experiments” inside OCA itself:

- edi-framework
- queue_job

Both were licensed under LGPL rather than AGPL, and yet they did not attract significantly more contributors or maintainers compared to their AGPL counterparts. If anything, the contributor base has remained relatively small and fixed over the years. This suggests that the license alone is not the determining factor for contributions — other aspects like module complexity, required expertise, or the integrators’ business model also play a huge role.

So the licensing impact turns out to be limited (as our current examples suggest).

For me, it would be more relevant to study why communities like "Spanish Odoo Association" are able to attract so many supporters. They have a similar message, but they have a different strategy that allows to engage most of EE companies. Maybe these people are not making PRs, but at least they make a monetary effort that helps contributors.

Best regards,

El vie, 12 sept 2025 a las 21:22, Frederik Kramer (<notifications@odoo-community.org>) escribió:

Hi Raphael,

as always very detailed and very insightful thoughts. Honestly, i can't add much value here than just saying you are right with all you said in my opinion. The 20/80 relation for LGPL/AGPL sounds quite reasonable (even if Pareto edges almost always apply).

I'll take the fear / discomfort of Pedro (and Enric) very reasonable, so instead of doing to much to fast, I would suggest to start with a controlled experiment (that even Pedro and Enric would be willing to agree to). 

The experiment could look like as follows:

Take a small, but prominent baseline or infrastructure module that we know or assume many people use (even many in illegal ways (just like Tom pointed out) as of today) were a solid majority (of OCA members) and the whole responsible PSC believes would be better if it were licensed under LGPL (or at least has no objections). Lets the responsible owners induce the license change from AGPL to LGPL, advertise this change, make an effort to publish and post about the module, the change and its useful usage, encourage to actively contribute...

and than measure diversity, total amount, quality of contributions, speed of migrations etc. for that very module over a longer period of time (+/- 1 year) and compare it with the AGPL population of similarly reasonable baseline and infrastructure moduls licensed under AGPL. 

That way we can easily test hypothesis without taking much risk. If the most supported hypothesis (i.e. some few baseline / infra modules LGPL, 80% business logic modules AGPL -> induces more adoption / contribution) we should see first supporting data from that experiment.

Best Frederik

Am 12.09.25 um 17:23 schrieb Raphaël Valyi:
… 
-- 
Dr.-Ing. Frederik Kramer
Geschäftsführer

initOS GmbH
Innungsstraße 7
21244 Buchholz i.d.N.

Tel:   +49 (0) 4181 13503 12
Fax:   +49 (0) 4181 13503 10
Mobil: +49 (0) 179 3901819

Email: frederik.kramer@initos.com
Internet: www.initos.com

Geschäftsführung:
Dr.-Ing. Frederik Kramer & Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Torsten Francke

Sitz der Gesellschaft: Buchholz i.d.N.
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-- 
Dr.-Ing. Frederik Kramer
Geschäftsführer

initOS GmbH
Innungsstraße 7
21244 Buchholz i.d.N.

Tel:   +49 (0) 4181 13503 12
Fax:   +49 (0) 4181 13503 10
Mobil: +49 (0) 179 3901819

Email: frederik.kramer@initos.com
Internet: www.initos.com

Geschäftsführung:
Dr.-Ing. Frederik Kramer & Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Torsten Francke

Sitz der Gesellschaft: Buchholz i.d.N.
Amtsgericht Tostedt, HRB 205226
USt-IdNr.: DE815580155
Steuer-Nr: 15/200/53247

_______________________________________________
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--
Enric Tobella Alomar
CEO & Founder

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