MongoDB Server Side Public License
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| MongoDB Server Side Public License | |
|---|---|
| Name | Server Side Public License |
| Originating author | MongoDB, Inc. |
| Introduced | 2018 |
| Based on | GNU Affero General Public License |
| License family | Copyleft |
| Source model | Source-available |
MongoDB Server Side Public License The MongoDB Server Side Public License is a source-available copyleft license created by MongoDB, Inc. intended to restrict cloud service providers from offering the licensed software as a managed service without complying with specific distribution terms. It was published alongside corporate policy changes and engaged stakeholders in debates involving intellectual property, cloud computing, and software distribution across jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, India, and Brazil.
Background
MongoDB, Inc. developed the license following discussions involving corporations such as Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Red Hat, Oracle, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise about monetization of open source software and competition in cloud markets. The change drew attention from legal scholars at institutions like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago, as well as policy analysts affiliated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, Creative Commons, and Wikimedia Foundation. Industry commentators from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Wired, The Verge, Ars Technica, and ZDNet framed the move in the context of precedents set by licenses such as the GNU General Public License, GNU Affero General Public License, MIT License, Apache License, BSD License, and Eclipse Public License.
Terms and Conditions
The license's core provisions require that users offering the software as a service to third parties provide source code under the same terms, invoking concepts similar to those in the GNU Affero General Public License and addressing concerns raised in cases like Oracle America, Inc. v. Google, Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., and SCO Group, Inc. v. International Business Machines Corporation. Interpretations involved contract law and statutory frameworks including the Uniform Commercial Code, United States Copyright Act, European Union directives, Berne Convention, and laws in jurisdictions such as Germany's Bundesgerichtshof and India's Supreme Court. Corporate counsel from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, VMware, Dropbox, Elastic, and Red Hat reviewed compliance requirements, while developers at organizations including Netflix, Spotify, Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, LinkedIn, and PayPal evaluated operational impacts. Technical communities on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Stack Overflow, Hacker News, Reddit, and mailing lists debated compatibility with tooling like Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, Ansible, Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenShift.
Compatibility and Differences with Other Licenses
Comparisons emphasized contrasts with the GNU Affero General Public License, GNU General Public License, MIT License, Apache License, BSD License, Creative Commons licenses, Eclipse Public License, Mozilla Public License, and Microsoft Public License. Analysts compared effects observed in projects such as Redis, ElasticSearch, OpenStack, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, CouchDB, Cassandra, HBase, Neo4j, Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, Grafana, Prometheus, and Terraform. Legal practitioners referenced standards from the Open Source Initiative, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, International Organization for Standardization, World Intellectual Property Organization, United States Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and National Institute of Standards and Technology to assess compatibility and enforceability.
Adoption and Usage
Adoption patterns differed across enterprises, startups, academic institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich, and research centers at CERN, SLAC, NASA, NOAA, and European Space Agency. Cloud providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, DigitalOcean, Linode, Heroku, and Rackspace reviewed deployment models. Corporations such as Cisco, Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, and Apple assessed dependencies in products, while open source projects hosted by Apache Software Foundation, Linux Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and Eclipse Foundation considered forks or alternative licensing paths. Community responses appeared in forums like GitHub Issues, GitHub Pull Requests, GitLab Merge Requests, Stack Exchange, and community conferences such as OSCON, FOSDEM, KubeCon, Red Hat Summit, AWS re:Invent, Google I/O, and Microsoft Build.
Legal Challenges and Controversies
Controversies referenced litigation strategies used in notable disputes such as Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Oracle v. Google, and SCO v. IBM, and involved expert witnesses from law firms including Baker McKenzie, Latham & Watkins, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Wilson Sonsini, DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, and Jones Day. Regulatory scrutiny by bodies like the Federal Trade Commission, European Commission, Competition and Markets Authority, Competition Commission of India, and Autorité de la concurrence highlighted antitrust and competition law questions. Advocacy organizations including Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Knowledge issued statements, while standards bodies and consortia such as W3C, IETF, OASIS, and IEEE engaged in technical-policy dialogues.
Reception and Impact on Open Source Ecosystem
Reactions spanned media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC, CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Wired, The Verge, Ars Technica, and ZDNet; academic commentary from Harvard Law Review, Yale Journal of Law & Technology, Stanford Law Review; and positions taken by organizations including Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE, Debian Project, Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, and Creative Commons. The license influenced subsequent licensing decisions in projects like ElasticSearch, Redis Modules, and other database and infrastructure software, prompting forks, re-licensing, and new governance models involving foundations such as Cloud Native Computing Foundation and OpenJS Foundation, and shaping debates at conferences including KubeCon, OSCON, and FOSDEM.