Difficulty following the AGPL for example systemd units

[Jason Yundt <jason@jasonyundt.email>]

Hello¸

I’m trying to set up public-inbox-httpd on my Web site [1], and I would like 
to use the public-inbox-httpd systemd units from the examples folder [2] [3]. 
They don’t exactly fit my needs, so I would like to modify them before 
deploying them. Here’s where I run into a problem:

Section 0 of the GNU AGPL says “"The Program" refers to any copyrightable work 
licensed under this License.” [4] For public-inbox, I think that the Program 
is the entire public-inbox source tree [5]. In other words, I think that those 
two systemd units [2] [3] are part of the Program.

Section 1 says “The Corresponding Source for a work in source code form is 
that same work.” [6] I think that the work in this case is the entire public-
inbox source tree. This means that the Corresponding Source is the entire 
public-inbox source tree which in turn means that those two systemd units are 
part of the Corresponding Source.

Section 13 says “[…]if you modify the Program, your modified version must 
prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer 
network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive 
the Corresponding Source of your version by providing access to the 
Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge, through some standard 
or customary means of facilitating copying of software.” [7]

Since those two systemd units are part of the Program, when I modify them I’m 
modifying the Program. In other words, when I modify those two systemd units, 
I’ll have to follow that section 13 requirement. In other words, “[my] modified 
version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a 
computer network […] an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of 
[my] version”.

The right way to do this would be to create a Git repo for my soft fork of 
public-inbox and change the mirror page [8]. The mirror page says

“AGPL code for this site:
  git clone https://public-inbox.org/public-inbox.git”

As far as I can tell, the only way for me to change that URL is to edit lib/
PublicInbox/WwwStream.pm. If I did that, then I would no longer be able to 
rely on my distro’s public-inbox packages. I would have to create my own 
system for updating public-inbox.

This makes using those example units annoyingly complicated. Here’s some ideas 
that I have for improving this situation:

1. Release those systemd units under something other than the GNU AGPL.
2. Add a public-inbox source tree option to config files. This option would 
allow you to override the “AGPL code for this site” URL.

Either option would work and both are definitely not necessary.

From,
Jason Yundt

[1]: <https://jasonyundt.website/>
[2]: <https://public-inbox.org/public-inbox.git/tree/examples/public-inbox-httpd@.service>
[3]: <https://public-inbox.org/public-inbox.git/tree/examples/public-inbox-httpd.socket>
[4]: <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html#section0>
[5]: <https://public-inbox.org/public-inbox.git/tree/>
[6]: <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html#section1>
[7]: <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html#section13>
[8]: <https://public-inbox.org/meta/_/text/mirror/>