Open-core model

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The open-core model is a business model for the monetization of commercially produced open-source software. The open-core model primarily involves offering a "core" or feature-limited version of a software product as free and open-source software, while offering "commercial" versions or add-ons as proprietary software. [1] [2] The term was coined by Andrew Lampitt in 2008. [3] [4]

Contents

The concept of open-core software has proven to be controversial, as many developers do not consider the business model to be true open-source software. Despite this, open-core models are used by many open-source software companies. [5]

Use of contributor license agreements

Some open-core products require their contributors to sign a contributor license agreement, which either dictates that the copyright of all contributions to the product become the property of its owner, or that the product's owner is given an unlimited, non-exclusive license to use the contributions, but the authors retain copyright ownership. In an open-core scenario, these agreements are typically meant to allow the commercial owner of the product (which in some cases, is ultimately the copyright holder to all of its code, regardless of its original author) to simultaneously market versions of the product under open-source and non-free licenses. This is in contrast with more traditional uses of CLAs, which are meant solely to allow the steward of an open-source project to defend and protect the copyrights of its contributors, or to guarantee that the code will only ever be made available under open-source terms (thus protecting it from becoming open core). [6] [7] [8]

Examples

Restrictions on use in services

A new variation of the practice emerged in 2018 among several open core products intended for server-side use, seeking to control use of the product as part of a service offered to a customer. These practices, in particular, target incorporation of the software into proprietary services by cloud application service providers such as Amazon Web Services, but with what vendors perceive to be inadequate compensation or contributions back to the upstream software in return. [23] [24]

MongoDB changed its license from the GNU Affero General Public License (a variation of the GPL which requires that the software's source code be offered to those who use it over a network) to a modified version titled the "Server Side Public License" (SSPL), where the source code of the entire service (including, without limitation, all code needed for another user to run an instance of the service themselves) must be released under the SSPL if it incorporates an SSPL-licensed component (unlike the AGPL, where this provision only applies to the copyrighted work that is licensed under the AGPL). [25] Bruce Perens, co-author of The Open Source Definition, argued that the SSPL violated its requirement for an open source license to not place restrictions on software distributed alongside the licensed software. [23] The Open Source Initiative (OSI) ruled that the SSPL violates the Open Source Definition and is therefore not a free software license, as the provision discriminates against commercial users. [26] Debian, Fedora, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux pulled MongoDB from their distributions after the license change, considering the new license to be in violation of their licensing policies. [25] [27]

Redis Labs made its Redis plugins subject to the "Commons Clause", a restriction on sale of the software on top of the existing Apache License terms. After criticism, this was changed in 2019 to the "Redis Source Available License", a non-free license which forbids sale of the software as part of "a database, a caching engine, a stream processing engine, a search engine, an indexing engine or an ML/DL/AI serving engine". [28] [24] [29] The last versions of the modules licensed solely under the Apache License were forked and are maintained by community members under the GoodFORM project. [23] A similar move was made when HashiCorp switched to the non-free Business Source License (BSL) on its products, including Terraform, which received the Linux Foundation-backed fork OpenTofu. [30]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free software</span> Software licensed to be freely used, modified and distributed

Free software, libre software, or libreware is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-source software</span> Software licensed to ensure source code usage rights

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative, public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software.

RAR is a proprietary archive file format that supports data compression, error correction and file spanning. It was developed in 1993 by Russian software engineer Eugene Roshal and the software is licensed by win.rar GmbH. The name RAR stands for Roshal Archive.

The Mozilla Public License (MPL) is a free and open-source weak copyleft license for most Mozilla Foundation software such as Firefox and Thunderbird. The MPL license is developed and maintained by Mozilla, which seeks to balance the concerns of both open-source and proprietary developers; it is distinguished from others as a middle ground between the permissive software BSD-style licenses and the GNU General Public License. So under the terms of the MPL, it allows the integration of MPL-licensed code into proprietary codebases, but only on condition those components remain accessible.

Source-available software is software released through a source code distribution model that includes arrangements where the source can be viewed, and in some cases modified, but without necessarily meeting the criteria to be called open-source. The licenses associated with the offerings range from allowing code to be viewed for reference to allowing code to be modified and redistributed for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Free/open-source software – the source availability model used by free and open-source software (FOSS) – and closed source are two approaches to the distribution of software.

Multi-licensing is the practice of distributing software under two or more different sets of terms and conditions. This may mean multiple different software licenses or sets of licenses. Prefixes may be used to indicate the number of licenses used, e.g. dual-licensed for software licensed under two different licenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU Affero General Public License</span> Free software license based on the AGPLv1 and GPLv3

The GNU Affero General Public License is a free, copyleft license published by the Free Software Foundation in November 2007, and based on the GNU GPL version 3 and the Affero General Public License (non-GNU).

A Contributor License Agreement (CLA) defines the terms under which intellectual property has been contributed to a company/project, typically software under an open source license.

An embedded database system is a database management system (DBMS) which is tightly integrated with an application software; it is embedded in the application. It is a broad technology category that includes:

Companies whose business centers on the development of open-source software employ a variety of business models to solve the challenge of how to make money providing software that is by definition licensed free of charge. Each of these business strategies rests on the premise that users of open-source technologies are willing to purchase additional software features under proprietary licenses, or purchase other services or elements of value that complement the open-source software that is core to the business. This additional value can be, but not limited to, enterprise-grade features and up-time guarantees to satisfy business or compliance requirements, performance and efficiency gains by features not yet available in the open source version, legal protection, or professional support/training/consulting that are typical of proprietary software applications.

MongoDB is a source-available, cross-platform, document-oriented database program. Classified as a NoSQL database product, MongoDB utilizes JSON-like documents with optional schemas. MongoDB is developed by MongoDB Inc. and current versions are licensed under the Server Side Public License (SSPL). MongoDB is a member of the MACH Alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redis</span> Source available in-memory key–value database

Redis is a source available, in-memory storage, used as a distributed, in-memory key–value database, cache and message broker, with optional durability. Because it holds all data in memory and because of its design, Redis offers low-latency reads and writes, making it particularly suitable for use cases that require a cache. Redis is the most popular NoSQL database, and one of the most popular databases overall. Redis is used in companies like Twitter, Airbnb, Tinder, Yahoo, Adobe, Hulu, Amazon and OpenAI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elasticsearch</span> Search engine

Elasticsearch is a search engine based on the Lucene library. It provides a distributed, multitenant-capable full-text search engine with an HTTP web interface and schema-free JSON documents. Elasticsearch is developed in Java and is dual-licensed under the (source-available) Server Side Public License and the Elastic license, while other parts fall under the proprietary (source-available) Elastic License. Official clients are available in Java, .NET (C#), PHP, Python, Ruby and many other languages. According to the DB-Engines ranking, Elasticsearch is the most popular enterprise search engine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redis (company)</span> American based private computer software company

Redis Ltd. is an Israeli private computer software company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Redis is the sponsor of the source-available in-memory NoSQL database of the same name and the provider of Redis Enterprise software, cloud services, and tools for global companies. The company’s research and development center is based in Tel Aviv and it has additional offices in London, Austin, and Bengaluru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DBeaver</span> Multi-platform database administration software

DBeaver is a SQL client software application and a database administration tool. For relational databases it uses the JDBC application programming interface (API) to interact with databases via a JDBC driver. For other databases (NoSQL) it uses proprietary database drivers. It provides an editor that supports code completion and syntax highlighting. It provides a plug-in architecture that allows users to modify much of the application's behavior to provide database-specific functionality or features that are database-independent. This is a desktop application written in Java and based on Eclipse platform.

The Server Side Public License (SSPL) is a source-available copyleft software license introduced by MongoDB Inc. in 2018.

Valkey is an open-source in-memory storage, used as a distributed, in-memory key–value database, cache and message broker, with optional durability. Because it holds all data in memory and because of its design, Valkey offers low-latency reads and writes, making it particularly suitable for use cases that require a cache. Valkey is the successor to Redis, the most popular NoSQL database, and one of the most popular databases overall. Valkey or its predecessor Redis are used in companies like Twitter, Airbnb, Tinder, Yahoo, Adobe, Hulu, Amazon and OpenAI.

References

  1. ↑ Riehle, Dirk (2009). "The Commercial Open Source Business Model". Value Creation in e-Business Management. Springer Verlag. pp. 18–30.
  2. ↑ Wasserman, Anthony I. (2011). "How the Internet transformed the software industry". Journal of Internet Services and Applications. 2 (1): 11–22. doi: 10.1007/s13174-011-0019-x . ISSN   1867-4828. Some companies have only a single version of their software, while others follow an "open core" model, providing a community release of the core version, and offering proprietary premium features using a commercial license.
  3. ↑ Lampitt, Andrew (29 August 2008). "Open-Core Licensing (OCL): Is this Version of the Dual License Open Source Business Model the New Standard?" . Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  4. ↑ Phipps, Simon (July 2012). Open Source Strategies for the Enterprise. O'Reilly Media. ISBN   978-1-4493-4117-6.
  5. ↑ Germain, Jack M. (15 April 2009). "Open Core Debate: The Battle for a Business Model". Linux Insider. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  6. ↑ Phipps, Simon (21 June 2013). "MySQL mistake is a wake-up call on open source ownership". InfoWorld. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "FSFE welcomes KDE's adoption of the Fiduciary Licence Agreement (FLA)". KDE . 22 August 2008.
  8. ↑ "6.1 Copyright Papers". gnu.org. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  9. ↑ "Confluent Community License FAQ". Confluent. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  10. ↑ "Product Specific License Terms | DataStax". DataStax: Active Everywhere, Every Cloud | Hybrid Cloud | Apache Cassandra | NoSQL. 21 February 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  11. ↑ Hillesley, Richard. "Open core or dual licensing? The example of MySQL". The H. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  12. ↑ Woodie, Alex (12 March 2019). "War Unfolding for Control of Elasticsearch". Datanami. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  13. ↑ "FAQ on 2021 License Change | Elastic". www.elastic.co. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  14. ↑ Bort, Julie (18 April 2012). "This Startup That Angered A Lot Of Open Source Fans Just Got $30 Million In Funding". Business Insider. Retrieved 19 February 2016. It was one of the first commercial companies to champion a concept called "open core."
  15. ↑ Bort, Julie (22 June 2010). "Marten Mickos says open source doesn't have to be fully open". Network World. Retrieved 19 February 2016. "We deliver a fully functional cloud with Eucalyptus software. You can download it on a GPL v3 license. But, additionally, we provide enterprise features only if you pay for them ... it's open core," he says.
  16. ↑ Jackson, Jacob (25 August 2010). "Eucalyptus Strengthens Its Back End". PCWorld. Retrieved 19 February 2016. To make money, Eucalyptus Systems uses an open-core business model, offering one version of the software free through an open-source license and selling a commercial version with support and additional features ...
  17. ↑ "CONTRIBUTING.md · master · GitLab.org / GitLab Community Edition". GitLab. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  18. ↑ "GitLab Enterprise Edition license change". GitLab. 11 February 2014. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  19. ↑ Seldon Core: Blazing Fast, Industry-Ready ML, Seldon, 13 June 2022, retrieved 13 June 2022
  20. ↑ "Redis license and trademark information". redis.io. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  21. ↑ "Licenses". redislabs.com. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  22. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (21 March 2024). "Redis switches licenses, acquires Speedb to go beyond its core in-memory database". TechCrunch. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
  23. 1 2 3 Gilbertson, Scott (16 October 2019). "In 2019, multiple open source companies changed course—is it the right move?". Ars Technica. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  24. 1 2 Finley, Klint (31 July 2019). "When Open Source Software Comes With a Few Catches". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  25. 1 2 Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. (16 January 2019). "MongoDB "open-source" Server Side Public License rejected". ZDNet. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  26. ↑ OSI Board of Directors (19 January 2021). "The SSPL is Not an Open Source License". Open Source Initiative . Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  27. ↑ "MongoDB's licensing changes led Red Hat to drop the database from the latest version of its server OS". GeekWire. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  28. ↑ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. "Redis Labs drops Commons Clause for a new license". ZDNet. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  29. ↑ Baer, Tony (16 October 2018). "It's MongoDB's turn to change its open source license". ZDNet. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  30. ↑ Miller, Ron (20 September 2023). "Terraform fork gets renamed OpenTofu, and joins Linux Foundation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
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