Skip to content
Snippets Groups Projects
Commit 4cb2af90 authored by Seth Schoen's avatar Seth Schoen
Browse files

Add very brief context about MongoDB and Redis relicensing

parent f683c266
No related branches found
No related tags found
No related merge requests found
......@@ -456,10 +456,16 @@ a specific version, and its Change License is GPLv2.
The Linux Foundation noted
(\otsurl{https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/how-open-source-foundations-protect-the-licensing-integrity-of-open-source-projects})
that several prominent projects switched away from open-source
licenses from 2018 to 2023. Not all of these adopted DOSP licenses,
but those that did so adopted BUSL. These included CockroachDB,
Couchbase, Terraform, and ArangoDB. The most prominent of these BUSL
adopters was HashiCorp, which wrote
licenses from 2018 to 2023. Not all of these adopted DOSP licenses\footnote{The
trend identified by the Linux Foundation began in late 2018, with two
major database projects, Redis and MongoDB, adopting the Server-Side
Public License (SSPL). SSPL was proposed as an Open Source license,
but was not ultimately accepted as Open Source by OSI's license review
process. Some proponents of this license continue to argue that it
meets criteria to be considered a form of free and open source
licensing.}, but those that did so adopted BUSL. These included
CockroachDB, Couchbase, Terraform, and ArangoDB. The most prominent
of these BUSL adopters was HashiCorp, which wrote
\begin{quote}
BSL 1.1 is a source-available license that allows copying,
......@@ -486,11 +492,13 @@ other companies from competing directly with the developers' hosted
database services, and that they doubted whether an Open Source
license would manage to accomplish this.\footnote{It's interesting to
note that the majority of the projects we've identified that
relicensed under BUSL are database systems. It's possible that
relicensed under BUSL are database systems. It's possible that
there was a degree of ``social contagion'' as database developers
observed several of their peers relicensing away from Open Source at
roughly the same time, either to BUSL or to other licenses that
restrict licensees from operating commercial services.}
restrict licensees from operating commercial services. As noted
above, database developers were also responsible for several other
relicensing decisions starting in 2018.}
By default, BUSL prohibits uses in ``production'' before the Change
Date. Licensors using the bare BUSL would thus expect commercial
......@@ -989,6 +997,10 @@ proprietary-licensing scheme with proprietary and A/GPL options.
%
% I haven't managed to find out whether it's correct that AWS was
% offering MongoDB-as-a-service before the relicensing in 2018.
%
% I put in a brief reference to MongoDB's relicensing above without
% entering into the question of the rationale or what AWS's
% competitive offering might have been.
\item \textbf{Effects on outside contributions.}
......
0% Loading or .
You are about to add 0 people to the discussion. Proceed with caution.
Finish editing this message first!
Please register or to comment