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Slack's success inspires derivatives and, in this case, a direct copy. Review the screenshots. Before you get excited about Mattermost as the hosted Slack you'
by jsmthrowaway 11y ago
Slack's success inspires derivatives and, in this case, a direct copy. Review the screenshots.
Before you get excited about Mattermost as the hosted Slack you've been waiting for, think hard about the AGPL licensing.
- nzseth 11y agoWhy would that be a problem?
- jsmthrowaway 11y agoI haven't worked for a company in four years that permits the installation of AGPL software because the ramifications are still unclear and largely untested. MongoDB asserts, for example, that just using MongoDB doesn't require you to do anything, even though the license text is in clear contradiction to the assertion. I do not think MongoDB understands its own license. Chris DiBona has spoken in public about Google's reasons, but he was kind. I cannot discuss other experience I have publicly, so I'd simply suggest doing some research on the large unknowns in deployment of AGPL software underneath a proprietary Web service somewhere, and then think about all the integrations you'd wire up to something like a Slack derivative. I am not a lawyer and would strongly suggest consulting one before using AGPL software anywhere in your infrastructure, at all.
- drummer32 11y agoI don't understand you reasoning at all. What could be the problem with using a chat software that is released under AGPL?
- jnbiche 11y agoBecause almost certainly engineers will want to integrate an on-premises system into their existing system, and that will trigger the AGPL for all the systems that are network-connected to the AGPL system. Unless you are sure that your engineers will know to not try to integrate the AGPL software with any of your existing systems, I agree that people should just stay away.
- 1stop 11y agoNo it won't... It will at most trigger the AGPL for the integration off that system... which is it's proprietary no one will ever want... hence no one will ever sue you to release it. Are Tinfoil hats on sale or something?
- jsmthrowaway 11y agoNo, just folks with a little more legal experience than "potentially and willfully violate the terms and spirit of a license because we assume nobody will ever sue us," which also doesn't scale beyond a team of two. Not enough people take license compliance seriously. (Your comment an example.) Just to communicate the impact here, getting compliance wrong can result in significant legal liability. You and I are both unqualified to dismiss it or discuss it.
- zephod 11y agoI find it interesting that you're getting consistent downvotes for saying the same thing my startup's legal counsel has repeatedly said about the AGPL: Be extremely careful. Assume nothing and write defensively, because the nature of an "integration" is too vague to risk a company's infrastructure. I get the impression others here are happily screwing around with AGPL integrations with nothing to lose.
- belorn 11y agoI wonder what the lawyer would say about a startup agreeing to EULA's in gmail or iphone/android. Im sure there is not vague terms in those contracts, and that customer emails is perfectly safe to be stored there with no liability risk to the company. I only suspect, but I think that vague terms in contracts is less of an issue when there has been no court cases involving companies that followed standard practices regarding compliance.
- 1stop 11y ago... Okay if it isn't tinfoil hatery... show me the case law which proves me wrong? Saying "I know a cautious lawyer" is just tautological BS.