[kwlug-disc] Permissive vs copyleft licenses

[Chris Frey]

On Wed, Dec 09, 2020 at 11:26:38PM -0500, Doug Moen wrote:
> The GPL doesn't have the magic powers that people attribute to
> it. MongoDB and Redis have both discovered that the AGPL 3 does not,
> in fact, protect them from competition from cloud providers who steal
> their code and use it to compete against them. As a result, MongoDB and
> Redis have both relicensed their code under non-FOSS licences. Those
> are two famous examples, but the same story is playing out with
> other companies as well, who are taking their code proprietary in the
> face of competition from cloud providers. [Eg, see this recent post:
> https://joemorrison.medium.com/death-of-an-open-source-business-model-62bc227a7e9b]

I've taken a closer look at MongoDB's SSPL, and far from the idea of
walking *away* from AGPL, it looks to me like it is getting even more
strict.  And that strictness works for them.

They are using GPL ideas to protect their dominance in the industry,
by forcing all code to be open, even code that merely supports the
offering of a competing MongoDB service:

https://www.mongodb.com/licensing/server-side-public-license/faq

Basically GPLv3 + section 13.

This prevents MongoDB as a company from getting left behind as cloud
providers build competing services.

It is not (yet?) approved by OSI, and therefore not an official open source
license, but it is very much in line with the concepts of the AGPL,
and even more viral.  I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes OSI approved
someday.

- Chris