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Re: a quick review of the timescaledb license



On Tue, 07 Jun 2022 12:11:11 -0400 Antoine Beaupré wrote:

[...]
> Okay, so what's in that `tsl/` folder? there you have *another* LICENSE
> file which is a custom license written specifically (presumably by
> lawyers) for timescaleDB:
> 
> https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/blob/3c56d3ecebbf476293ff43ded142bc9e5087f6de/tsl/LICENSE-TIMESCALE
> 
> I haven't read the entirety of it,

Nor have I, but some parts of it look clearly non-free, as you yourself
point out.

> but it's pretty clear to me that this
> cannot be packaged in Debian at all, ever, under that license. Just
> clause 2.2 (prohibiting use in "software-as-a-service") breaks clause 6
> of the Debian free software guidelines.
[...]

Part of clause 2.2 states:

[...]
|  2.2 Prohibitions.  Notwithstanding any other provision in this TSL
|  Agreement, You are prohibited from (i) using any TSL Licensed Software to
|  provide time-sharing services or database-as-a-service services, or to
|  provide any form of software-as-a-service or service offering in which the
|  TSL Licensed Software is offered or made available to third parties to
|  provide time-series database functions or operations, other than as part of
|  Your Value Added Products or Services, or (ii) copying or distributing any
|  TSL Licensed Software for use in any of the foregoing ways.
[...]

This really seems to fail DFSG#6 .

There are other parts of this license which appear to be blatantly
non-free, but I haven't studied them in detail...



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