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Then how does it work if I haven't started a business yet? I invent something, AWS find it useful and start providing it as a service. Now I want a piece of t

Then how does it work if I haven't started a business yet? I invent something, AWS find it useful and start providing it as a service. Now I want a piece of the action and start a business myself. Does that means AWS have to stop offering the service? Also same if I change direction of my business, to begin competing with a company providing the service. If that is the case, I don't see why companies would touch anything with that license...

stavros 2y ago
If you're starting a project with the intent of eventually making it into a business, you use this license and AWS doesn't touch it. If you're starting a project with the intent of always keeping it FOSS, you use MIT and don't care what AWS does. Sentry's license is a fantastic alternative to just never opening up the source, and that's how we should be thinking about it.
cge 2y ago
While I'm not quite sure what my opinion on this license is yet, it does appear to try to at least partially address that. Whether or not you are offering the software itself as a service, the license does not allow it to be commercially offered as a service directly at all. For services using the software, it prohibits the user making the software available to others as part of a commercial product or service that "substitutes for any other product or service we offer using the Software that exists as of the date we make the Software available", with the "Software" being "each version of the software". That would seem to mean, for simply using the software, that AWS could continue offering the service, but after that point, would not be able to update to the next version of the software. It seems like the other prohibitions would prevent them from forking it, but possibly not from working around the old version in other code. In practice, it would likely mean no one would use the software commercially for two years, or would simply use two-year-outdated versions, perhaps with patches.
ensignavenger 2y ago
The Functional Source License says "A Competing Use means making the Software available to others in a commercial product or service that: 1) substitutes for the Software; 2) substitutes for any other product or service we offer using the Software that exists as of the date we make the Software available; 3) or offers the same or substantially similar functionality as the Software." So if you haven't started your business yet when you make the release, the second criteria wouldn't have any effect. Once you start your business, any release you make after that point would have that restriction. If you change your business, only releases made after you change your business would be restricted in regards tot he new business, and releases made prior would be restricted in regards to your prior business. Honestly, its a lot to keep track of for a user, and a lot of risk, I would always prefer open source alternatives.

stavros 2y ago

If you're starting a project with the intent of eventually making it into a business, you use this license and AWS doesn't touch it. If you're starting a project with the intent of always keeping it FOSS, you use MIT and don't care what AWS does. Sentry's license is a fantastic alternative to just never opening up the source, and that's how we should be thinking about it.

cge 2y ago

While I'm not quite sure what my opinion on this license is yet, it does appear to try to at least partially address that. Whether or not you are offering the software itself as a service, the license does not allow it to be commercially offered as a service directly at all. For services using the software, it prohibits the user making the software available to others as part of a commercial product or service that "substitutes for any other product or service we offer using the Software that exists as of the date we make the Software available", with the "Software" being "each version of the software". That would seem to mean, for simply using the software, that AWS could continue offering the service, but after that point, would not be able to update to the next version of the software. It seems like the other prohibitions would prevent them from forking it, but possibly not from working around the old version in other code. In practice, it would likely mean no one would use the software commercially for two years, or would simply use two-year-outdated versions, perhaps with patches.

ensignavenger 2y ago

The Functional Source License says "A Competing Use means making the Software available to others in a commercial product or service that: 1) substitutes for the Software; 2) substitutes for any other product or service we offer using the Software that exists as of the date we make the Software available; 3) or offers the same or substantially similar functionality as the Software." So if you haven't started your business yet when you make the release, the second criteria wouldn't have any effect. Once you start your business, any release you make after that point would have that restriction. If you change your business, only releases made after you change your business would be restricted in regards tot he new business, and releases made prior would be restricted in regards to your prior business. Honestly, its a lot to keep track of for a user, and a lot of risk, I would always prefer open source alternatives.