MongoDB Now Released Under the Server Side Public License – MongoDB

https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodb-now-released-under-the-server-side-public-license

by metheus • 8 years ago

15 11 8 years ago

antirez2• 8 years ago

If this really gets OSI approved then OSI will practically redefine what OSS is. I doubt that anything that has limits in its usage and not just redistribution rules of modifications will have any chance to get OSI approved.

EDIT: here I better explained my POV -> https://twitter.com/antirez/status/1052201491325284352

kognate• 8 years ago

From the OSI FAQ:

https://opensource.org/faq#restrict

-----

Can I restrict how people use an Open Source licensed program?

    No. The freedom to use the program for any purpose is
 part of the Open Source Definition. Open source licenses
 do not discriminate against fields of endeavor.

------

It is strange to me that Mongo would even couch such a change in its "open source-ness" when the FAQ from OSI specifically calls out what they have done as something that should _not_ be done.

metheus2• 8 years ago

Disclosure: I work for MongoDB.

I suspect some people are responding to what they've heard, so I just want to post section 13 of the SSPL here for everyone's convenience. This section is the only part of the SSPL that isn't exactly the GPL:

13. Offering the Program as a Service.
If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License. Making the functionality of the Program or modified version available to third parties as a service includes, without limitation, enabling third parties to interact with the functionality of the Program or modified version remotely through a computer network, offering a service the value of which entirely or primarily derives from the value of the Program or modified version, or offering a service that accomplishes for users the primary purpose of the Software or modified version.
“Service Source Code” means the Corresponding Source for the Program or the modified version, and the Corresponding Source for all programs that you use to make the Program or modified version available as a service, including, without limitation, management software, user interfaces, application program interfaces, automation software, monitoring software, backup software, storage software and hosting software, all such that a user could run an instance of the service using the Service Source Code you make available.

Regardless of how you feel about the purpose of the SSPL, it absolutely does not apply any restrictions to using the licensed software. What it does is codify the responsibilities of someone who runs the software as a service.

petercooper• 8 years ago

If anyone senses echoes to the recent Redis license related news, consider that only applied to specific plugins/extensions to Redis (whose core remains BSD), whereas this relicensing applies to all forthcoming versions of MongoDB's core open source/community variant.

MongoDB Now Released Under the Server Side Public License – MongoDB

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