Would love to hear from others on what this could potentially mean for MDB. Will they get Amazon to give back to the open source software or maybe even pay up?
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/aws-developing-new-s…
Chris.
6 Likes
That is a complicated legal issue. I could not read the whole article because it requires subscription. Legally speaking anyone can use the software for free. That is the basis of open source. You pay if you need and want the greater functionality. A company like AWS perhaps can just use the open source aspect and handle all the other stuff in-house without having to pay for the upgraded functionality. If so, on the surface, it would seem nothing wrong with it.
I would be interested in reading the details but do not want to pay for a subscription and I do not know the law off the top of my head. In fact this is probably making new law. Just how much “fair use” can a company make of otherwise open source software?
I do not see why Amazon should be treated different from anyone else from the contract unless Amazon is using the underlying code to compete against Mongo.
A good and interesting issue to look into when I get a bit more time.
Tinker
4 Likes
Having read through the issue, it is the same as I addressed in my previous post. The good thing is that Mongo is changing its licensing to better try to extract value from AWS and its ilk who are free riding. The bad news is that it will require litigation. The history is that huge companies like Amazon abuse the system because they can easily afford the lawyers and distractions that are much more difficult for a Mongo to afford. And by the time the litigation is over with the penalty paid is usually either (1) a lot smaller than the value stolen, and/or (2) becomes a moot issue as they so destroy the industry it no longer matters, and the technology has moved on.
Hopefully neither will be the case here. What is not know is how much value Amazon and its ilk are pilfering from MongoDB. That would tell us a lot more from an investing perspective.
Tinker
4 Likes
That is a complicated legal issue. I could not read the whole article because it requires subscription. Legally speaking anyone can use the software for free. That is the basis of open source. You pay if you need and want the greater functionality. A company like AWS perhaps can just use the open source aspect and handle all the other stuff in-house without having to pay for the upgraded functionality. If so, on the surface, it would seem nothing wrong with it.
The first paragraph gives a hint…
“Companies that manage open-source software have a message for cloud computing providers like Amazon: pay up, share your code or stop using our technology for free.”
You can use the software for free but you must return to the community any changes you make to the code (the bolded part). Clearly Amazon is not paying but, are they customizing the code?
Denny Schlesinger
Clearly Amazon is not paying but, are they customizing the code?
Yes and not contributing the modified code back. This is the issue, now, Amazon has a mongo DB product that is tailored to run better in AWS, but MDB doesn’t.
BTW, AWS does the same with Linux too. AWS benefited significantly from open source.
1 Like