Re: MongoDB Server Side Public License, Version 1 (SSPL v1)

[Xavier <xg@xnr.fr>]

Le 16/10/2018 à 22:44, Florian Weimer a écrit :
> * Xavier:
> 
>>> From: Eliot Horowitz <eliot@mongodb.com>
>>> Date: Tue Oct 16 13:03:02 UTC 2018
>>> Subject: [License-review] Approval: Server Side Public License,
>>> Version 1 (SSPL v1)
>>> ...
>>> “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.
>>
>> I feel this part fails against the dissident test but I could be wrong.
> 
> I think you are right, but the test <https://wiki.debian.org/DissidentTest>
> is not formally part of the Debian Free Software Guidelines.

Right but as DFSG is just a guideline, my opinion is that:
 - formal success to DFSG is not enough (else we would have to change
   them more often, which would create detrimental instability),
 - if one of the 3 tests fails, we leave with an unfavorable opinion to
   start the discussion here.

In this case, I feel that upstream team wants to limit freedom of their
software while remaining just at the limit of the rules.

So for now, my feeling is that it's not in the spirit of DFSG, while
~respecting the words.