Re: GPL Question

[Ryan]

Ummm, anyone want to address my question?

On Wed, 2007-12-12 at 07:39 +0000, Ryan wrote:
> I'm not sure this is the place to be asking this, so please redirect me
> if necessary.
> 
> I'm working on a payment-routing server (http://ripple.sf.net/), and I'd
> like to release it under a license that obliges those who build services
> on it to also release the source for those services.  Applications built
> on top of would essentially be accounting systems that interact with the
> server over a socket (likely using HTTP), but that interaction is quite
> complex, requiring several different types of callbacks to the
> accounting system.  
> 
> Would the Affero GPL work for me?  Would an application on top of my
> server be considered a "single system" with that server for the purposes
> of the GPL?  
> 
> What if there was, or could theoretically be, another server like mine
> that uses the same API, so the application could plug in a different
> server?  Is this important, or is the fact that someone *is* using my
> server tightly integrated with their application the relevant fact?
> 
> A similar example to consider might be if I was releasing a database
> server under the AGPL.  If someone used it in their web app, would they
> be obliged to release their app source under the [A]GPL as well?  Would
> it matter if my db server or its interface was generic or
> unique/specialized?
> 
> Thanks,
> Ryan
>