Hacker News Reader

(With the caveat that I think what really matters here is "and hoard changes and updates", not "make money at all":) The AGPL comes to mind, but I bet that is slightly too viral? It is a hard problem: how do you legally differentiate a web app built on top of MongoDB from a thin wrapper for MongoDB that provides a minority different API from the backend (or might even simply be a load balancer)?

View on HN

"Software as a service" is a well understood concept, and on the strength of that understanding, the SSPL is clear. (Although as with all things there are edge cases, there aren't more edge cases with the SSPL than with other licenses.)

If your web app uses MongoDB (or any SSPL licensed software) to provide a value that is not substantially MongoDB itself, you are not making the software available as a service. If your code facilitates making MongoDB's features available to other users, you are providing MongoDB as a service and are obligated to make all that code available under the SSPL.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com