You can’t use the GNU (A)GPL to take away software freedom — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is the steward of the GNU family of General Public Licenses (GPL), carefully crafted to ensure that copyright holders have a tool to release programs as free software, protecting and preserving the freedoms of computer users. The FSF has always allowed everyone to use our licenses as intended, consistent with the core principles of free software – ensuring that users have the freedom to run, copy, study, modify, improve and distribute software. We are always happy to see more programs properly released under one of our licenses, and advocate compliance and constructive dialogue in our approach to resolving licensing issues.

The (A)GPL is designed to give freedom, not take it away.

The FSF was recently mentioned by Lev Bannov of the OnlyOffice project in connection with their use of a modified version of the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPLv3). This, in addition to the OnlyOffice team’s public position regarding its recent Euro-Office forkrepresents an attempt to impose an additional restriction on the AGPLv3 that is inconsistent with the freedoms granted by the license. We would like to be able to offer our position and guidance privately before OnlyOffice published the license with their additional restriction(s), as we do for many other projects. We will still be happy to help OnlyOffice align its approach with the intended use of the AGPLv3. However, since any attempt to place (A)GPL-incompatible terms on a (A)GPL license confused users
about their freedoms, it is therefore our duty to explain how the AGPLv3 is intended to work.

It is possible to amend the (A)GPLv3 with additional provisions, but
only by complying with the terms of the licence. One can also legally use the (A)GPL terms (possibly modified) in another license that imposes terms beyond what the (A)GPLv3 allows, but then referring to the license as “the (A)GPL” would be false. As described in the FSFs
Frequently Asked Questions on GNU licenses this kind of license modification has requirements to make sure that the resulting license is never confused with any of the FSF’s licenses.

In the main repository of the OnlyOffice DocumentServerwe found that the README file (and similar README files located in other OnlyOffice repositories) clearly states that the software is made available under the AGPLv3 in the “License” section. However, OnlyOffice includes additional provisions in the LICENSE file (and in some other LICENSE files in other repositories), as well as in license notices of individual source files. in utils.jsfor example, it reads: “Pursuant to Section 7(b) of the License, you must retain the original product logo when you distribute the program.” This obligation to “keep the original product logo” is not included in Art. 7(b) of the (A)GPLv3, nor in any other parts, as an (A)GPL-compliant additional provision, and therefore as a further restriction of the (A)GPLv3.

The (A)GPLv3 makes clear that it allows all licensees to remove any additional terms that are “further restrictions” under the (A)GPLv3. It states, “(i)f the Program as you received it, or any part thereof, contains a notice stating that it is governed by this License together with a provision that is a further limitation, you may remove that provision.”

We encourage everyone to carefully read the FSF’s licenses and consult our published materials before attempting to develop additional terms. We host the documentation of the (A)GPLv3 drafting process and we also published our recommendations for (A)GPL-compliant additional provisions requiring preservation of author attributions or legal notices. People can also write to us licensing@fsf.org with license questions. Amending a GNU license with additional terms in a way consistent with the intended purpose of the license is good for software freedom, but it is our duty to respond when GNU licenses are abused by changing them with terms that confuse users about the freedoms they grant. We cannot allow anyone to make unauthorized derivative works of our licenses, nor to permit or accept confusing uses of the FSF’s trademarks.

We call on OnlyOffice to clarify the situation by making it clear that OnlyOffice is licensed under the AGPLv3, and that users who have already received copies of the software are allowed to remove any further restrictions. Furthermore, if they intend to continue using the AGPLv3 for future releases, they should clearly state that the program is licensed under the AGPLv3 and make sure to remove any further restrictions from their program documentation and source code. To confuse users by attaching further restrictions to any of the FSF’s family of GNU General Public Licenses is inconsistent with free software.

This work, “A Stack of Constraints,” is adapted from “Stack of papers” © 2013 by Glitch, made available under s Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. “A bunch of limitations” © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc., by Eko KA Owen is licensed under s Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.