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A comment on MongoDB switches up its open source license. Parent comment

Re:MongoDB switches up its open source license by nine_k on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @03:43PM (#18232532)
Playing a devil's advocate. Suppose somebody made a clean-room implementation of a MongoDB driver that contacts MongoDB, then passes the data to a MongoDB-compatible interface that shares no code with MongoDB. This wrapper is duly shared. Can that guy then offer a SaaS MongoDB-compatible DB by exposing this driver, connected to a real MongoDB, without a commercial license?

As we notice, all that SSPL would require to share is shared in this case.

Then a wholly-owned subsidiary could build various value-added services on top of that MongoDB-compatible thing without a commercial license. This of course would fail if the wrapper would need to be licensed under SSPL, too.

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Re:MongoDB switches up its open source license by metheus on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @03:58PM (#18232696)
The SSPL neatly sidesteps that workaround. It does not specify anything about the provenance of code, or the extent to which code is shared with the licensed software's code.

If you offer a service based on the licensed software, and the value of the service being publicly provided entirely or primarily derives from the licensed software, every bit of code -- the clean-room driver, the compatible interface, the admin scripts, UI for management, etc. -- used to offer that service must be made available under the SSPL.

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