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The project is not open-source. #214

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Patola opened this issue Sep 7, 2020 · 1 comment
Open

The project is not open-source. #214

Patola opened this issue Sep 7, 2020 · 1 comment
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@Patola
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Patola commented Sep 7, 2020

Describe the bug
The project claims to be open-source, but it's not. It does not meet the very first point of the open-source definition, by saying it cannot be used commercially (the NC clause), and also point 6.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Go to https://github.com/kerberos-io/machinery/blob/master/README.md
  2. It says the project uses BY-NC-SA 4.0. Click on "about this license".
  3. Compare to the open source definition here, https://opensource.org/osd-annotated -- it violates point 1 and point 6 of the definition.
  4. Also of note, it is not listed as an open-source license by the Open Source Initiative: https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical

Expected behavior
License should be a copyleft license (GPL, LGPL, etc.) or a permissive license (MIT, BSD, Apache, etc.), which are the only two kinds of open source licenses. No license with a "NC" clause is open source.

Operating System and Device (please complete the following information):

  • Any. Open source does not discriminate operating systems (point 5).

Additional context
Please either change the license or the claim in the documentation and download pages that this software is open source. It currently does not conform to the Open Source Definition which was created by the very group which invented the term, to serve as the formal and authoritative definition. The "NC" clause is long known as a clause antagonic to the very purpose of the open source philosophy. If you need to restrict commercial usage, you don't get what it is about.

@cedricve
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cedricve commented Nov 17, 2020

hey @Patola, thanks for sharing your knowledge, highly appreciated. I understand your point of view, the reason why we call Kerberos Open Source, Open source, is because, despite the correctness of your (the) theory, our users/people relate Open Source with software free of charge.

Our goal is to make everyone in this world able to setup his surveillance system within the format he wants. Being a hobbiest or an enterprise. Therefore we developed two versions Kerberos Open Source (free of charge - non commerical, ability to change for personal use) and Kerberos Enterprise (enterprises, scalable and licensed solution).

We understand the term Open Source for technical people might be misleading, and makes incorrect assumptions, however from our point of view and with the 6 years experience we have, is that people who plan to do some commercial activities always reach out to double check the license possibilities.

PS: our goal is not to sue our users, but speak the language of our users. -- Oh, this is Open Source, I can quickly test and use this solution without any financial contributions --

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