5 ms·

MongoDB used the AGPL for years but transitioned to the SSPL when AGPL turned out to offer insufficient protection from being "AWS"d. Mongo's explanation: "[t

MongoDB used the AGPL for years but transitioned to the SSPL when AGPL turned out to offer insufficient protection from being "AWS"d. Mongo's explanation: "[there was] confusion in the marketplace about the trigger and scope of the Remote Network Interaction provision of AGPL" [1] Though, ultimately, AWS's "work-around" to this arms-race was to reverse-engineer MongoDB, abiding by its interface & APIs to offer a drop-in replacement: DocumentDB. [2] [1] https://www.mongodb.com/licensing/server-side-public-license/faq#how-data-is-stored https://www.mongodb.com/licensing/server-side-public-license... [2] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-documentdb-with-mongodb-compatibility-fast-scalable-and-highly-available/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-documentdb-with-...

saagarjha 7y ago
> Mongo's explanation: "[there was] confusion in the marketplace about the trigger and scope of the Remote Network Interaction provision of AGPL" [1] I don't understand how this flies at all. The AGPL to me clearly includes AWS in its text, as it's a service offered over the network?
- detaro 7y ago
  > The AGPL to me clearly includes AWS in its text, as it's a service offered over the network? It does. As a consequence, AWS would have to share the source code of MongoDB with everyone. Which costs them nothing and gains MongoDB-the-company nothing, while MongoDB-the-company probably looses a good chunk of income because AWS can offer their product better integrated with the rest of AWS, under the same billing, ...
ddorian43 7y ago
These drop-in never work out in reality. Check differences between mongodb & documentdb.
pritambaral 7y ago
I keep seeing this "AWS"d claim regarding MongoDB, but I can't find any references to any service by AWS at any time in the past that run or used any code of MongoDB. I can find services that run or use PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, ElasticSearch, but simply no MongoDB. What I can find are references to small companies like mLab that provided MongoDB hosting/managing as a service, that MongoDB Inc. either bought out for cheap right before going proprietary, or outcompeted.
- flurdy 7y ago
  https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ It is even in the title: Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) But of course, they say it is only using a similar API and no code. We have no way of verifying this.
  - pritambaral 7y ago
    Perhaps I should've emphasised or clarified when I said "in the past". This was released _after_ MongoDB went proprietary. MongoDB's decision to go proprietary could not have been influenced by this, because this did not exist at that time.

saagarjha 7y ago

> Mongo's explanation: "[there was] confusion in the marketplace about the trigger and scope of the Remote Network Interaction provision of AGPL" [1] I don't understand how this flies at all. The AGPL to me clearly includes AWS in its text, as it's a service offered over the network?

detaro 7y ago
> The AGPL to me clearly includes AWS in its text, as it's a service offered over the network? It does. As a consequence, AWS would have to share the source code of MongoDB with everyone. Which costs them nothing and gains MongoDB-the-company nothing, while MongoDB-the-company probably looses a good chunk of income because AWS can offer their product better integrated with the rest of AWS, under the same billing, ...

ddorian43 7y ago

These drop-in never work out in reality. Check differences between mongodb & documentdb.

pritambaral 7y ago

I keep seeing this "AWS"d claim regarding MongoDB, but I can't find any references to any service by AWS at any time in the past that run or used any code of MongoDB. I can find services that run or use PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, ElasticSearch, but simply no MongoDB. What I can find are references to small companies like mLab that provided MongoDB hosting/managing as a service, that MongoDB Inc. either bought out for cheap right before going proprietary, or outcompeted.

flurdy 7y ago
https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ It is even in the title: Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) But of course, they say it is only using a similar API and no code. We have no way of verifying this.
- pritambaral 7y ago
  Perhaps I should've emphasised or clarified when I said "in the past". This was released _after_ MongoDB went proprietary. MongoDB's decision to go proprietary could not have been influenced by this, because this did not exist at that time.