Cloudron License

[LoudLemur]

In which section of the Cloudron Documentation can we find the licence? Under which licence is Cloudron released? I thought this would be more prominent.

https://docs.cloudron.io/

[jdaviescoates]

@loudlemur it's not open source if that's what you're wondering?

It was for a while, but isn't anymore, but I've never heard any actual reasoning why not other than they kept getting emails from idiots saying "how can it be open source but not free" and a (imho false) assumption that somehow making it open source would wreck its business model. Maybe it would but I've no heard any actual arguments as to how that would play out. My own view is many people not willing to subscribe to a non-open source service would very happily subscribe to support an open source project (and, well, for updates and support too, just like how Redhat made billions)

See https://forum.cloudron.io/post/10860

The licence is here:

https://www.cloudron.io/legal/license.html

[LoudLemur]

@jdaviescoates

Thanks! Here is a screenshot of the Licence with some salient parts highlighted.

Here are the Terms of Service referenced in the Licence.

https://www.cloudron.io/legal/terms.html

I haven't had a chance yet to investigate this, but the first thing I notice is that this is specifically a licence for a subscription to Cloudron.

The Free Software Foundation (as I am sure people here will know) specify 4 Freedoms required for software to be Free:

• The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

As a side note, I always thought that the numbering began with 0 because it is the way in computing, however...

Footnote
The reason they are numbered 0, 1, 2 and 3 is historical. 
Around 1990 there were three freedoms, numbered 1, 2 and 3. Then we realized that the freedom to run the program needed to be mentioned explicitly. 
It was clearly more basic than the other three, so it properly should precede them. 
Rather than renumber the others, we made it freedom 0.

[BrutalBirdie]

@staff this needs to be updated

[girish]

I have fixed the year in the license.

As for the license itself, the platform code is not opensource or free software if that is what you are wondering. We contribute to opensource in other ways both financially and with development - https://www.cloudron.io/opensource.html . The license text is an adaptation of various other licenses like GitLab EE, Sourcegraph EE license etc.

All our app packages are opensource. All the code is at https://git.cloudron.io/

[LoudLemur]

@girish said in Cloudron Licence:

I have fixed the year in the license.

As for the license itself, the platform code is not opensource or free software if that is what you are wondering. We contribute to opensource in other ways both financially and with development - https://www.cloudron.io/opensource.html . The license text is an adaptation of various other licenses like GitLab EE, Sourcegraph EE license etc.

All our app packages are opensource. All the code is at https://git.cloudron.io/

I would like Cloudron to be released under a Free Licence. I am sure I am not alone in this.

I feel uneasy about it being non-Free. It feels like the rug could be pulled out from underneath at any moment. It is not that I think that Cloudron might "turn evil", but that pressure could be brought to bear on the maintainers, and in that way infrastructure built on Cloudron could be cancelled.

Is there any hope that Cloudron might be re-releaed under a Free licence?