Posted by MallocVoidstar 4 days ago
I'm also not so sure a serious business person checked off on annoying and scaring users that aren't but might in the future become customers or otherwise paying users.
Either the original license grant is expansive, so the clarification is welcome and the fork will become the standard unless/until the modification is upstreamed, or else the grant is restrictive, so the fork language is invalid, and the grantors face the risk of laches or other equitable defenses if they don't stop the fork from offering the less ambiguous interpretation that grantees rely on.
Fork as legal test case, if you will.
I wasn't involved in any of the Dev Ops aspect when my former employer used them, but the search function actually worked which is better than I can say for Slack.
[0]https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat/blob/develop/LICEN...
Rocket Chat does look nice! I quite liked Mattermost except for the mobile app being trash. How is the Rocket Chat mobile app?
I thought it was fine, but I can't compare to the Mattermost app since I've never tried to use that.
My reading of the license is: either (a) buy a license or (b) be bound by the AGPLv3 -- with _very_ limited exceptions.
So, my question is: are the people that are upset with the "ambiguity" people who neither (a) want to buy a license nor (b) be bound by the AGPLv3?
If so, I have no sympathy.
> (a) want to buy a license nor
> (b) be bound by the AGPLv3?
No and no. People first want to know what the correct licenses are even before deciding which licensing path (including buying a commercial license) to take. You don't just commit to buying a commercial license without first understanding your options and comparing those options. People want to know what those options are.
People are upset that a company cannot get the simple matter of open source licensing right. It's the easiest kind of licensing. But they cannot get it right. These upset people would now never want to do business with this company.
People who would have otherwise been happy to purchase a commercial license would also stay away from the company because messing up open source licensing is a red flag. Who knows what kind of mess would be present in their commercial contracts. Yes, you can hire a lawyer to sort it out but I'd much rather do business with a company where I'm confident that the company is acting in good faith even before lawyers get involved.
> If so, I have no sympathy.
Your sympathy means nothing to me when I am picking vendors for my business. When I'm picking my vendors, I'm going to rely on professional legal expertise available to me, not the sympathies of random strangers on the internet.
> No and no.
[...]
>> If so, I have no sympathy.
> Your sympathy means nothing to me
Well, regardless... via the rules of logical implication, you have it.
Well, regardless... via the rules of logical implication, you can't be certain that you don't have it.
If you aren't comfortable with the word "may", you'll have a lot of trouble with open source languages.
Then it goes on with the Apache license text.