Scipio ERP 4.0 is AGPL-3.0: what that means for your shop

Scipio ERP 4.0 and every later release is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPL-3.0). Scipio ERP 3.x and every earlier release stay under the Apache License 2.0, and nothing changes for an installation that stays on them.

Beside the AGPL-3.0 there is a commercial license for the same code. So there are two ways to use 4.0, and which one fits depends on what you do with it. This post goes through the cases we are asked about most.

This is how we read our own license. It is not legal advice, and where this post and the license text disagree, the license text wins.

What is in the repository#

The licensing is written down in three files in the Scipio ERP repository on GitHub :

• LICENSE holds the full AGPL-3.0 text (part A), a note on the commercial license, and the Apache License 2.0 (part B).
• NOTICE holds the notices the Apache License requires, because Scipio ERP is a fork of Apache OFBiz.
• THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md lists every library with its own license.

Each Scipio source file carries the header SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only. Files that came from Apache OFBiz keep their Apache header and stay under the Apache License 2.0. The build checks this: gradlew checkLicenseHeaders fails on a file without a header.

Case 1: you run Scipio ERP as we ship it#

You download 4.0, configure your store, load your catalogue and sell. You change no source file.

The AGPL-3.0 lets you run the program for any purpose, commercial use included, and you owe nobody your source code for that. You add products, prices, content, themes settings and users through the applications, and all of that is your data, not the program.

Case 2: you change Scipio ERP and your customers use it#

You fix a service, change a screen or patch the checkout, and your shop runs that changed version on the internet.

This is the case the “Affero” part of the license is for. Section 13 of the AGPL-3.0 says that if you modify the program, your version must offer everyone who interacts with it over a network the chance to get its source code, free of charge, from a network server. In practice that means a link, for example in the shop footer, to a repository with the source of the version you run, under the AGPL-3.0.

The ordinary GPL asks for the source only when you hand out copies. The AGPL-3.0 also asks for it when people use your version over a network, which is how a shop and an ERP are used.

Case 3: you add your own component#

Most Scipio ERP projects are not patches to the core but components of their own: a connector to a supplier, a custom report, a theme.

Whether such a component counts as part of a modified version of Scipio ERP depends on how it is built and combined, and that is a question about your code that we cannot answer in a blog post. If you are not sure, and the answer matters to you, the commercial license takes the question away: under it, your changes stay yours, whatever they are.

Case 4: you build a product on Scipio ERP and sell it#

You make a product of your own on top of Scipio ERP and ship it, or you run it for your customers as a service.

Under the AGPL-3.0 you may do both, as long as you pass on the source code of what you ship or run under the same license. If you want to keep your product closed, that is what the commercial license is for.

Case 5: you stay on Scipio ERP 3.x#

Nothing changes. The releases you already run were published under the Apache License 2.0, and they stay under it.

The commercial license#

The commercial license is the same software without the duties of the AGPL-3.0. It is part of the Enterprise Edition and has one published price: €4,800 per production instance and year, plus VAT, with the updates, the Enterprise addons, the service level agreement and our support. There is no quote and no revenue share. The details are on Plans & Pricing .

The Community Edition stays free under the AGPL-3.0, with the source on GitHub, and without support from our team.

Where to read more#

• The license page , with the full statement for 4.0, for 3.x and for the Apache OFBiz code.
• The FAQ , with the difference between the editions.
• The AGPL-3.0 text at the Free Software Foundation, section 13 in particular.

If your case is not one of the five, write to us and describe what you run. We answer with what the license asks of you, and which of the two licenses fits.