Hey all, we’re launching our start-up next month and are planning to pick Elastic V2 as our software license.<p>Link to the license: https://www.elastic.co/licensing/elastic-license<p>Link to our project: https://github.com/ubicloud/ubicloud<p>A recent HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36971490<p>We’re choosing Elastic V2 for three reasons: (1) We’re planning to monetize through a managed service and we’d like the license to support that, (2) Later if we change our mind, we think it’s easier on our users if we go from a restrictive license to a more permissive one, and (3) The Elastic V2 license is much simpler than its cousin, Server Side Public License (SSPL).<p>That said, Elastic V2 is a new license and doesn’t seem to be as popular as SSPL. Also, some projects out there mix and match multiple licenses in their repo to be able to call themselves open source.<p>Any insights / feedback on Elastic V2 or software licenses in general?
It's a tough balance, but I'm glad to see your company trying to get this right up front rather than pulling the rug later.<p>My only concern with Elastic V2 is the vagueness of providing a hosted service to 'third parties'. There are some use cases where organisations might run a platform team that supports this for other teams, or if organisations have third-party contractors who use the service while engaged on work inside an org etc. I think it'd be helpful to make it more specific that the usage has to be commercially competing with your own managed service so you don't torpedo those kinds of internal use cases.