Re: a quick review of the timescaledb license

[Francesco Poli]

On Tue, 07 Jun 2022 12:11:11 -0400 Antoine Beaupré wrote:

[...]
> Okay, so what's in that `tsl/` folder? there you have *another* LICENSE
> file which is a custom license written specifically (presumably by
> lawyers) for timescaleDB:
> 
> https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/blob/3c56d3ecebbf476293ff43ded142bc9e5087f6de/tsl/LICENSE-TIMESCALE
> 
> I haven't read the entirety of it,

Nor have I, but some parts of it look clearly non-free, as you yourself
point out.

> but it's pretty clear to me that this
> cannot be packaged in Debian at all, ever, under that license. Just
> clause 2.2 (prohibiting use in "software-as-a-service") breaks clause 6
> of the Debian free software guidelines.
[...]

Part of clause 2.2 states:

[...]
|  2.2 Prohibitions.  Notwithstanding any other provision in this TSL
|  Agreement, You are prohibited from (i) using any TSL Licensed Software to
|  provide time-sharing services or database-as-a-service services, or to
|  provide any form of software-as-a-service or service offering in which the
|  TSL Licensed Software is offered or made available to third parties to
|  provide time-series database functions or operations, other than as part of
|  Your Value Added Products or Services, or (ii) copying or distributing any
|  TSL Licensed Software for use in any of the foregoing ways.
[...]

This really seems to fail DFSG#6 .

There are other parts of this license which appear to be blatantly
non-free, but I haven't studied them in detail...



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Re: a quick review of the timescaledb license

[Sebastian Crane]

Dear Antoine,

> It was pointed out to me that TimescaleDB has a "open core" model and
> it's actually possible to build an "apache-2.0-only" version of the
> program.

Yup, it looks like all files in the tsl/ directory are governed by the
proprietary license, and can be excluded from builds:

https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/blob/3c56d3ecebbf476293ff43ded142bc9e5087f6de/tsl/src/init.c#L64

Clearly some checks to make sure this 'APACHE-ONLY' flag actually
works would be useful for Debian's purposes! :)

Thanks for taking a look at this, Antoine. They could have been a bit
clearer in describing their 'open core' model, since it must have
confused quite a few would-be distro packagers by now!

Best wishes,

Sebastian

Re: a quick review of the timescaledb license

[Antoine Beaupré]

It was pointed out to me that TimescaleDB has a "open core" model and
it's actually possible to build an "apache-2.0-only" version of the
program. The differences between the two are here:

https://docs.timescale.com/timescaledb/latest/timescaledb-edition-comparison/

... and guix actually made a package that removes the proprietary bits
here:

https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/databases.scm#n1315

a.
-- 
Tu connaîtras la vérité de ton chemin à ce qui te rend heureux.
- Aristote