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A comment on Mattermost say they will not clarify what license the project is under. Parent comment

Re:Mattermost say they will not clarify what license the pro... by epistasis on Monday February 02, 2026 @04:21PM (#46861741)
Hopefully I'm not violating copyright by taking this small chunk of their LICENSE.txt, but this appears to be the language that some want clarified:

https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost/blob/master/LICENSE...

----

    You are licensed to use compiled versions of the Mattermost platform produced by Mattermost, Inc. under an MIT LICENSE
    
    - See MIT-COMPILED-LICENSE.md included in compiled versions for details
    
    You may be licensed to use source code to create compiled versions not produced by Mattermost, Inc. in one of two ways:
    
    1. Under the Free Software Foundation’s GNU AGPL v3.0, subject to the exceptions outlined in this policy; or
    2. Under a commercial license available from Mattermost, Inc. by contacting [email protected]
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Re:Mattermost say they will not clarify what license the pro... by moeffju on Monday February 02, 2026 @04:36PM (#46861946)
"Subject to the exceptions" conflicts with the "no exceptions" wording in the GPL licenses, so I don't even see how any of this constitutes a valid license
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Re:Mattermost say they will not clarify what license the pro... by gpm on Monday February 02, 2026 @04:56PM (#46862258)
I read the exceptions as a grant of additional rights to mattermost's copyright (but not to third parties), I don't think that conflicts.

I'm not sure that they actually granted a GPL license at all though. I could see this document being read as an advertisement that one might be for sale instead of a grant...

(Not a lawyer)

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Re:Mattermost say they will not clarify what license the pro... by gowld on Monday February 02, 2026 @04:54PM (#46862215)
AGPL does not say "no exceptions". AGPL explicity allows exceptions:

https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost/blob/master/LICENSE...

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html

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