And just like that, Amazon Web Services forked Elasticsearch, Kibana. Was that part of the plan, Elastic?
(2021/01/22)
- Reference: 1611276633
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/01/22/aws_elastic_fork/
- Source link:
Amazon Web Services has responded to Elastic adopting more-restrictive software licenses by simply forking the latter's Elasticsearch and Kibana products with an open-source license.
This basically means developers have a choice: use software developed by Elastic that has a somewhat limited license, or an open-source offshoot developed by a gigantic technology company that also offers it as the Amazon Elasticsearch Service in the cloud.
[1]
Last week, Elastic [2]announced it will drop the open-source Apache 2.0 licence for its ElasticSearch and Kibana projects, and instead use the non-open-source Server Side Public License ( [3]SSPL ) and [4]Elastic licence in a dual-licensing approach. It said it may add provisions to have the code revert to the Apache 2.0 licence after a period of up to five years.
For those who don't know: ElasticSearch is a database manager designed for enterprise search, and Kibana is a data visualisation tool.
[5]
Give 'em SSPL, says Elastic. No thanks, say critics: 'Doubling down on open' not open at all [6]READ MORE
Defending the change, Elastic CEO and co-founder Shay Banon [7]said he wanted to "prevent companies from taking our Elasticsearch and Kibana products and providing them directly as a service without collaborating with us." And by companies, the chief exec means Amazon Web Services. The license overhaul would have strong-armed the web giant into sharing any internal improvements made to the software when it is provided as a cloud service.
"The SSPL allows free and unrestricted use, as well as modification, with the simple requirement that if you provide the product as a service, you must also publicly release any modifications as well as the source code of your management layers under SSPL," Banon wrote.
Well, AWS has responded by instead detonating an atomic bomb under Elastic, and forking the Apache-licensed code as it stands right now to itself maintain separately. In a missive on Thursday, Amazonians Carl Meadows, Jules Graybill, Kyle Davis, and Mehul Shah [8]wrote :
Last week, Elastic announced they will change their software licensing strategy, and will not release new versions of Elasticsearch and Kibana under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (ALv2). Instead, new versions of the software will be offered under the Elastic License (which limits how it can be used) or the Server Side Public License (which has requirements that make it unacceptable to many in the open source community). This means that Elasticsearch and Kibana will no longer be open source software.
In order to ensure open source versions of both packages remain available and well supported, including in our own offerings, we are announcing today that AWS will step up to create and maintain a ALv2-licensed fork of open source Elasticsearch and Kibana.
The cloud-hosted Amazon Elasticsearch Service will start using AWS's fork and all of its new features, and will maintain backwards compatibility so customers don't have to change their applications to continue using the service. Programmers writing software that uses Elasticsearch and Kibana will figure out Elastic is acting, as Amazon put it, "fishy." The internet goliath thus hopes developers will adopt its fork, which it described as a "long-term" project, rather than continue to use Elastic's offerings.
"We look forward to providing a truly open source option for Elasticsearch and Kibana using the ALv2 license, and building and supporting this future with the community," the team beamed.
Fed up with cloud giants ripping off its database, MongoDB forks new 'open-source license' [9]READ MORE
Then there's the issue with Amazon's Open Distro for Elasticsearch, which was [10]launched in 2019 and is an Apache-2.0-licensed not-a-fork of Elasticsearch. It is intended to be entirely open source without any intermingling of proprietary code, and was run as a collaboration with upstream development. In future, though, with Elasticsearch and Kibana forked from version 7.10 of Elastic's open-source codebases, the forks will replace the pair in Open Distro. In other words, not-a-fork Open Distro will become a fork.
Responding to Amazon calling Elastic's bluff, Banon [11]said : "When we announced the [licensing] change, we sadly expected this. This is what made it so hard. But I am also relieved. Relieved we are free to focus on products versus battle abuse. Relieved that I can trust our community will see through this misinformation and confusion."
We also note that Elastic is [12]still pursuing Amazon through the courts, claiming the mega-corp is ripping off its Elasticsearch trademark.
[13]
Meanwhile, other upstarts based on open-source projects – notably Confluent, MongoDB, Neo4J, and Redis Labs – have also tried variations of software licenses to make it more difficult for Amazon and its ilk to out compete them. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YApb5uvFKXnoTYx5r0w3@gAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/18/elastics_doubling_down_on_open/
[3] https://opensource.org/node/1099
[4] https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/master/licenses/ELASTIC-LICENSE.txt
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YApb5uvFKXnoTYx5r0w3@gAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/18/elastics_doubling_down_on_open/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/21/aws_not_ok_says_elastic/
[8] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/stepping-up-for-a-truly-open-source-elasticsearch/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/16/mongodb_licensning_change/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/12/aws_elasticsearch_distro/
[11] https://twitter.com/kimchy/status/1352392935963119616?s=20
[12] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16262308/elasticsearch-inc-v-amazoncom-inc/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YApb5uvFKXnoTYx5r0w3@gAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
This basically means developers have a choice: use software developed by Elastic that has a somewhat limited license, or an open-source offshoot developed by a gigantic technology company that also offers it as the Amazon Elasticsearch Service in the cloud.
[1]
Last week, Elastic [2]announced it will drop the open-source Apache 2.0 licence for its ElasticSearch and Kibana projects, and instead use the non-open-source Server Side Public License ( [3]SSPL ) and [4]Elastic licence in a dual-licensing approach. It said it may add provisions to have the code revert to the Apache 2.0 licence after a period of up to five years.
For those who don't know: ElasticSearch is a database manager designed for enterprise search, and Kibana is a data visualisation tool.
[5]
Give 'em SSPL, says Elastic. No thanks, say critics: 'Doubling down on open' not open at all [6]READ MORE
Defending the change, Elastic CEO and co-founder Shay Banon [7]said he wanted to "prevent companies from taking our Elasticsearch and Kibana products and providing them directly as a service without collaborating with us." And by companies, the chief exec means Amazon Web Services. The license overhaul would have strong-armed the web giant into sharing any internal improvements made to the software when it is provided as a cloud service.
"The SSPL allows free and unrestricted use, as well as modification, with the simple requirement that if you provide the product as a service, you must also publicly release any modifications as well as the source code of your management layers under SSPL," Banon wrote.
Well, AWS has responded by instead detonating an atomic bomb under Elastic, and forking the Apache-licensed code as it stands right now to itself maintain separately. In a missive on Thursday, Amazonians Carl Meadows, Jules Graybill, Kyle Davis, and Mehul Shah [8]wrote :
Last week, Elastic announced they will change their software licensing strategy, and will not release new versions of Elasticsearch and Kibana under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (ALv2). Instead, new versions of the software will be offered under the Elastic License (which limits how it can be used) or the Server Side Public License (which has requirements that make it unacceptable to many in the open source community). This means that Elasticsearch and Kibana will no longer be open source software.
In order to ensure open source versions of both packages remain available and well supported, including in our own offerings, we are announcing today that AWS will step up to create and maintain a ALv2-licensed fork of open source Elasticsearch and Kibana.
The cloud-hosted Amazon Elasticsearch Service will start using AWS's fork and all of its new features, and will maintain backwards compatibility so customers don't have to change their applications to continue using the service. Programmers writing software that uses Elasticsearch and Kibana will figure out Elastic is acting, as Amazon put it, "fishy." The internet goliath thus hopes developers will adopt its fork, which it described as a "long-term" project, rather than continue to use Elastic's offerings.
"We look forward to providing a truly open source option for Elasticsearch and Kibana using the ALv2 license, and building and supporting this future with the community," the team beamed.
Fed up with cloud giants ripping off its database, MongoDB forks new 'open-source license' [9]READ MORE
Then there's the issue with Amazon's Open Distro for Elasticsearch, which was [10]launched in 2019 and is an Apache-2.0-licensed not-a-fork of Elasticsearch. It is intended to be entirely open source without any intermingling of proprietary code, and was run as a collaboration with upstream development. In future, though, with Elasticsearch and Kibana forked from version 7.10 of Elastic's open-source codebases, the forks will replace the pair in Open Distro. In other words, not-a-fork Open Distro will become a fork.
Responding to Amazon calling Elastic's bluff, Banon [11]said : "When we announced the [licensing] change, we sadly expected this. This is what made it so hard. But I am also relieved. Relieved we are free to focus on products versus battle abuse. Relieved that I can trust our community will see through this misinformation and confusion."
We also note that Elastic is [12]still pursuing Amazon through the courts, claiming the mega-corp is ripping off its Elasticsearch trademark.
[13]
Meanwhile, other upstarts based on open-source projects – notably Confluent, MongoDB, Neo4J, and Redis Labs – have also tried variations of software licenses to make it more difficult for Amazon and its ilk to out compete them. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YApb5uvFKXnoTYx5r0w3@gAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/18/elastics_doubling_down_on_open/
[3] https://opensource.org/node/1099
[4] https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/master/licenses/ELASTIC-LICENSE.txt
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YApb5uvFKXnoTYx5r0w3@gAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/18/elastics_doubling_down_on_open/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/21/aws_not_ok_says_elastic/
[8] https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/stepping-up-for-a-truly-open-source-elasticsearch/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/16/mongodb_licensning_change/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/12/aws_elasticsearch_distro/
[11] https://twitter.com/kimchy/status/1352392935963119616?s=20
[12] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16262308/elasticsearch-inc-v-amazoncom-inc/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YApb5uvFKXnoTYx5r0w3@gAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
And you're suprised?
Mike the FlyingRat
Welcome to the world of Open Source.
Anyone can fork any project and continue to develop and morph the project as they see fit.
Once the Genie is out of the bottle, hard to stuff that cork back in.
Backfire!
steamnut
Banon ought to check his history; this sort of manoeuvre rarely works out well. Open Source is too big a movement now to be worried by a sudden (why are they all sudden or unexpected changes?) licence change like this.
Redhat just changed is licence conditions after canning CentOS but it could have announced both changes at the same time. They didn't which makes the latest announcement look like a knee jerk reaction.
Similarly, QT has just thrown a spanner in the works. The Qt Company is moving Qt 5.15 to "Commercial-Only" LTS Phase starting on Jan 5th 2021.I think that this will mark the of the end of a very beneficial cooperative community relationship which could become more confrontational.
amazon just keep on eating...
Anonymous Coward
AWS don't give a shit about anything apart from money. Will they open source their own tech? no - only some bits that no-one gives a crap about. If their whole eco system was O/S then I would buy it. They play the O/S card but that is just a bunch of crap cause they know if divides the community. Their goal is to destroy any competition using any means necessary. Run everyone else's shit cheaper than they can themselves and pick up the consumer cash. Its totally unfair and but the options are limited - change licenses... go commercial.... go and get a job for amazon? Mega monopoly and bullying at global scale..... if this was a bank then things would be different.
Bad optics
Technically AWS isn't doing anything wrong, but the optics are bad. I am genuinely concerned about the future of established Open Source projects.