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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
InitOS GmbH, Frederik Kramer
- 08/09/2025 13:49:23

Hi Enric,

as we had a heated discussion lately already (thats unfortunately not yet over, you know what i mean), i believe we should not invest to much enthusiasm / emotion into that discussion for now. What is clear to me is that if we change something that must be build on a solid application of the (to be reworked / updated) governance structure of the OCA and therefore certainly also after a new board has been elected. In any case i am not proposing an all in strategy but rather a controlled experiement (maybe along the lines of the modules Ivan suggested and of course with the consent of all its PSC members). Nevertheless i will take on that topic as a "mind experiment" (among quite a few additional ones) in my talk regarding the future of the OCA next tuesday. Hopefully you will find time to take part at least remotely as your contributions to that and various other discussions are always very opinionated, valuable and insightful at the same time and help to enrich such a fundamental discussion.

Best Frederik

Am 08.09.25 um 13:32 schrieb Enric Tobella Alomar:
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:
OCA should veil for the open source part of Odoo (https://odoo-community.org/about). Encouraging to use LGPL only favors the closed source part of the ecosystem, as you can mount on top OCA LGPL modules any private module, so people will only provide to/improve OCA base tools, while keeping by themselves the finished business solutions as private. That's why if we relicense even these base tools to LGPL, the real value provided by OCA will go down, only getting base/tool modules that are not finished business solutions. That's why we should force people to play with the same open source rules. And the tool for that is AGPL. Imagine if my company Tecnativa would retain their RMA, HR shift, resource booking, etc complete apps as private because technically they don't depend on AGPL code, what would OCA be without them?

And this is not something that each individual should investigate, OCA should invest resources in assuring that there's no problem in this, and as this sometimes requires an initial jurisprudence case, to assure that if that case comes one day, OCA will provide the legal assistance. If none of these things happen, OCA would fail in its mission IMO.

Regards.

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Dr.-Ing. Frederik Kramer
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