Yes — but the combined work must be released under the more restrictive license.
Artistic License 2.0 code can be combined with GNU Affero GPL v3.0 or later code without conflict. The combined work, when distributed, must be licensed under GNU Affero GPL v3.0 or later. The original Artistic License 2.0 files keep their notice, but the project as a whole is governed by the stronger copyleft.
| License | Family | Patent grant |
|---|---|---|
| Artistic License 2.0 (Artistic-2.0) | permissive | No (implicit at most) |
| GNU Affero GPL v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later) | network-copyleft | Yes |
Artistic License 2.0: Permissive license historically used in the Perl ecosystem.
GNU Affero GPL v3.0 or later: AGPL-3.0 with explicit upgrade path.
If you found this page because you're trying to figure out whether shipping a particular dependency is safe, the answer above is a starting point — not a substitute for reading the actual licenses or talking to a lawyer when stakes are high.
LicenseHound walks every transitive dependency in your repo, maps each to its SPDX license, and flags pairs like this one in PR comments. The CLI is free; the team dashboard is paid.