Strengthening Our Commitment to Free and Open Source Software

At Scratch, collaboration and learning are at the heart of everything we do. From the beginning, Scratch has been shaped by contributions from a vibrant community of developers, educators, and learners worldwide. This spirit of open collaboration has driven our success and aligns deeply with Scratch’s values of creativity, inclusivity, and shared knowledge.

Today, we’re excited to announce a significant step in our commitment to the Free and Open Source Software movement: We are transitioning the Scratch editor’s code to the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPL).

The AGPL builds on the collaborative ethos of Scratch by ensuring that if anyone distributes a modified version of Scratch or offers it as a web-based service, they must share their modified source code with the community. This change reflects Scratch’s values of remixing and sharing, extending these principles to our open-source community.

For most users and contributors, this change will feel seamless. You’ll still have full access to read, modify, and use the Scratch code as before. The difference is that this new license guarantees a more reciprocal relationship, protecting the collective spirit of collaboration and ensuring that contributions made with Scratch remain available to everyone.

This is just the first of several initiatives we’ll be rolling out as we deepen our investment in the open source ecosystem and our global community. Stay tuned for updates as we continue to grow Scratch in alignment with our mission to help kids everywhere create what they imagine.

Scratch On!