ElasticSearch recently dropped its open-source licensing strategy, prompting AWS to fork it. Learn how "Open Source" actually works and how companies profit from it. Follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/fireship_dev

00:00 ElasticSearch vs AWS Drama
04:43 What is Open Source?
06:40 How to make money with OSS

AWS's Side https://aws.amazon.com/it/blogs/opensource/stepping-up-for-a-truly-open-source-elasticsearch/
Elastic's Side https://www.elastic.co/blog/why-license-change-AWS
Open Source Initiative https://opensource.org/

#aws #elasticsearch #tech

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Elasticsearch versus AWS.
It's a battle between the $1,000,000,000 David and the $1,000,000,000,000 Goliath.
And the outcome could have a huge influence on the future of open source software as we know it.
In today's video, we'll talk about the drama surrounding Amazon and Elastic.
But more importantly, you'll learn how open source software actually works from a legal perspective and why if you're a business that uses open source software, the license granted to you by the creator does actually matter.
If you're new here, like and subscribe, and let me know what you think about all this drama in the comments.
As of last week, Elasticsearch will no longer be free open source software.
So Going forward, it'll have a dual license, one of which is proprietary, and the other is SSPL, which is commonly known as a fopen source license.
This change is a big deal because Elastic used to be licensed under Apache 2 point o, which allows commercial use with very few restrictions.
Current Elastic users can still use the software without any negative impact.
However, if you're someone like AWS that offers a fully managed Elasticsearch service, you can no longer use future releases of the software to provide that service.
For example, if I wanted to launch a startup called Jeff's Elasticsearch Service, I wouldn't be able to legally do that without permission from the company.
So, basically, the license is a way to limit the dominance of big cloud providers.
But in the process, it also screws over another group of SQL, anybody who's contributed to the Elasticsearch code base over the last 10 years.
When you write code for an open source project, you do it under a specific license.
S and most often, you're doing it unpaid in your free time with the expectation that that software will remain free and open source throughout its lifetime.
When a company goes to a more restrictive license, it's like pulling the rug out from under you.
Gotcha, bitch.
There's nothing illegal about it, but it's like saying, hey.
Thanks for your contribution.
Your code is now proprietary.
We're gonna make a ton of money off it, pay you absolutely nothing, and not let you build a business from our software going forward.
That's a pretty lame deal if you ask me, and Elastic knows this, so which begs the question, why would they make such an unfair change in the first place?
Like most things in life, it comes down to the money.
Amazon is profitable and makes tons of money in the cloud with a 1.6 $1,000,000,000,000 market cap.
Meanwhile, Elastic has a meager $15,000,000,000 market cap and is nowhere near profitability.
I drink so Your milkshake.
I drink it up.
Don't blame me.
So Elastic has argued that AWS has been doing things that are, quote, not okay since 2015.
Some of the alleged unethical behavior includes using Elastic's trademarks without authorization, copying features offered in Elastic's cloud product, and copy and proprietary code to use in Amazon's open distro for Elasticsearch.
And in a broader sense, just using and profiting from the open source software without giving back enough to the community.
And Elastic is not the first high profile tech company to have issues with AWS.
MongoDB is actually the original pioneer of the SSPL license.
They had similar complaints and wanted to restrict the power of cloud companies to offer their software as a service.
It's no secret that big tech companies steal or get inspired, I should say, by the features offered by other companies.
So all of Instagram's features are stolen from Snapchat, and the same dynamic works in the cloud, mostly between the big three companies trying to match each other in feature parity.
S and Elastic is just one small part of a much bigger system.
At the end of the day, though, it ends up being a lose lose situation for Elastic.
Had they remained open source, developers would still love them, but AWS would continue to drink their milkshake.
But by making the licensing change, they pissed off a bunch of open source developers.
Sore.
And on top of that, Amazon called their bluff.
You don't become the king by being a nice guy.
Instead of saying, okay, Elastic, we'll shut down our service or pay you for a license, so Amazon said, fork you, bro.
We're just going to fork your project and maintain it as an open source project going forward, where we call all the shots, so which means going forward, there are basically 2 versions of Elasticsearch out in the world.
There's the original official one with a restricted license and the new Amazon fork with the original Apache 2 point o license.
The move to fork the project was expected because when MongoDB changed their license a couple of years ago, Amazon quickly created their own service called DocumentDB, which is technically a different database, but fully compatible with MongoDB.
Amazon is big and powerful enough to just whip up a service like this on the fly to circumvent any damage from a licensing change.
So it really makes me wonder what Elastic really has to gain from this move.
Sor Maybe I'm missing something, and let me know in the comments, but it seems like the only thing that Elastic has actually gained from this move is negative press.
I put a pull out on Twitter, and 2 out of 3 people would prefer to use the AWS fork over the original proprietary software.
In any case, so Let's take a step back for a minute to understand what open source software really is and how it affects you as a developer or entrepreneur.
Source.
The authority on open source is the open source initiative, which has been around since the late nineties and is governed by a board of directors.
It's not government controlled or anything like that.
It's just the accepted organization by the greater tech industry.
Now in order for a software to be considered open source, it needs to follow the 10 principles shown here.
We're not going to go through all of them, but in a nutshell, the software needs to be free to use and distribute for any purpose, including commercial uses.
S Now if you want to offer open source software to the world, you'll attach a license to your project, and there are a bunch of different licenses out there.
Some of the most popular include Apache, MIT, and GPL.
My personal favorite is the MIT license, which is very short and basically just says, do whatever the hell you want.
Source.
Then the Apache license, which is also very popular and what Elasticsearch formerly used, is also very permissive, but basically says do whatever you want, s- just don't sue me.
And then you might have slightly more restrictive options like GPL, which say that if you make a derivative work, then you also need to share it under an open source license.
S and sometimes big companies don't like that because they wanna take open source software and make it proprietary.
Now when working with an open source project, you'll most often do on GitHub.
For any given project, you should see the license in the root of the repository, and GitHub should give you a nice little breakdown of the actual bullet points in the legal jargon itself.
If you're building a business with open source software, it's worth understanding what the license actually means because that could come back to bite you in a big way down the road.
S Now another thing worth pointing out is that when you contribute to open source software, you may also be required to sign a contributor license agreement.
This is like the reverse of the project license.
It's an agreement made by you, the contributor, allowing the company that owns the repo to do certain things with your code.
They're usually only required by big companies that have big legal teams that can manage them.
Sore.
At the end of the day, open source is awesome because it creates an ecosystem where developers and companies can innovate much faster.
Sore.
But you may be wondering, how does anyone make money off of open source software?
If you build something awesome, making it open source might seem counterproductive if your goal is to make money.
Surprisingly, there are a variety of highly successful business models built on open source.
One example is Ruby on Rails.
It's an application framework that was used to build many high profile companies like Twitter and Shopify.
But it was created by a lesser known company called Basecamp.
The popularity of Rails indirectly helped Basecamp grow because it brought them a ton of positive attention and created a huge community of open source developers helping make the framework better.
In other words, It turned out to be a great organic marketing tool for building a bigger brand.
But there are more direct ways to make money with open source, one of which is in the form of consulting.
My friends over at Narwhal created the NX framework for managing large enterprise web applications.
It's open source, but if you're a large enterprise that wants to use this framework, who better than to consult you on it than the company that created it.
Although the software is free, the consulting fees are not.
Red Hat also follows a similar model with 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue.
So but another way to make money is to offer your software as a hosted service in the cloud, often with extra features that you can't get from the main open source software.
Soor- This is the approach that Elastic is taking where they offer additional features like security aimed at enterprise clients because that's where the money is.
Source.
And another example is WordPress, the most popular blog builder in the world.
Even though it's open sourced, the company also offers their own hosted service that makes it much easier to set up, configure, and host a WordPress blog.
And who would you rather pay for that service than the company who created the original software?
So to recap, there are 3 basic ways to make money from open source in my opinion.
Use it as a marketing tool, use it to gain consulting clients, or use it to build your own paid service.
I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there.
But before you go, make sure to let me know what you think about all this stuff in the comments.
Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.

Speaker 0: Elasticsearch versus AWS. It's a battle between the $1,000,000,000 David and the $1,000,000,000,000 Goliath. And the outcome could have a huge influence on the future of open source software as we know it. In today's video, we'll talk about the drama surrounding Amazon and Elastic. But more importantly, you'll learn how open source software actually works from a legal perspective and why if you're a business that uses open source software, the license granted to you by the creator does actually matter.

If you're new here, like and subscribe, and let me know what you think about all this drama in the comments. As of last week, Elasticsearch will no longer be free open source software. So Going forward, it'll have a dual license, one of which is proprietary, and the other is SSPL, which is commonly known as a fopen source license. This change is a big deal because Elastic used to be licensed under Apache 2 point o, which allows commercial use with very few restrictions. Current Elastic users can still use the software without any negative impact.

However, if you're someone like AWS that offers a fully managed Elasticsearch service, you can no longer use future releases of the software to provide that service. For example, if I wanted to launch a startup called Jeff's Elasticsearch Service, I wouldn't be able to legally do that without permission from the company. So, basically, the license is a way to limit the dominance of big cloud providers. But in the process, it also screws over another group of SQL, anybody who's contributed to the Elasticsearch code base over the last 10 years. When you write code for an open source project, you do it under a specific license.

S and most often, you're doing it unpaid in your free time with the expectation that that software will remain free and open source throughout its lifetime. When a company goes to a more restrictive license, it's like pulling the rug out from under you. Gotcha, bitch. There's nothing illegal about it, but it's like saying, hey. Thanks for your contribution.

Your code is now proprietary. We're gonna make a ton of money off it, pay you absolutely nothing, and not let you build a business from our software going forward. That's a pretty lame deal if you ask me, and Elastic knows this, so which begs the question, why would they make such an unfair change in the first place? Like most things in life, it comes down to the money. Amazon is profitable and makes tons of money in the cloud with a 1.6 $1,000,000,000,000 market cap.

Meanwhile, Elastic has a meager $15,000,000,000 market cap and is nowhere near profitability. I drink so Your milkshake. I drink it up. Don't blame me. So Elastic has argued that AWS has been doing things that are, quote, not okay since 2015.

Some of the alleged unethical behavior includes using Elastic's trademarks without authorization, copying features offered in Elastic's cloud product, and copy and proprietary code to use in Amazon's open distro for Elasticsearch. And in a broader sense, just using and profiting from the open source software without giving back enough to the community. And Elastic is not the first high profile tech company to have issues with AWS. MongoDB is actually the original pioneer of the SSPL license. They had similar complaints and wanted to restrict the power of cloud companies to offer their software as a service.

It's no secret that big tech companies steal or get inspired, I should say, by the features offered by other companies. So all of Instagram's features are stolen from Snapchat, and the same dynamic works in the cloud, mostly between the big three companies trying to match each other in feature parity. S and Elastic is just one small part of a much bigger system. At the end of the day, though, it ends up being a lose lose situation for Elastic. Had they remained open source, developers would still love them, but AWS would continue to drink their milkshake.

But by making the licensing change, they pissed off a bunch of open source developers. Sore. And on top of that, Amazon called their bluff. You don't become the king by being a nice guy. Instead of saying, okay, Elastic, we'll shut down our service or pay you for a license, so Amazon said, fork you, bro.

We're just going to fork your project and maintain it as an open source project going forward, where we call all the shots, so which means going forward, there are basically 2 versions of Elasticsearch out in the world. There's the original official one with a restricted license and the new Amazon fork with the original Apache 2 point o license. The move to fork the project was expected because when MongoDB changed their license a couple of years ago, Amazon quickly created their own service called DocumentDB, which is technically a different database, but fully compatible with MongoDB. Amazon is big and powerful enough to just whip up a service like this on the fly to circumvent any damage from a licensing change. So it really makes me wonder what Elastic really has to gain from this move.

Sor Maybe I'm missing something, and let me know in the comments, but it seems like the only thing that Elastic has actually gained from this move is negative press. I put a pull out on Twitter, and 2 out of 3 people would prefer to use the AWS fork over the original proprietary software. In any case, so Let's take a step back for a minute to understand what open source software really is and how it affects you as a developer or entrepreneur. Source. The authority on open source is the open source initiative, which has been around since the late nineties and is governed by a board of directors.

It's not government controlled or anything like that. It's just the accepted organization by the greater tech industry. Now in order for a software to be considered open source, it needs to follow the 10 principles shown here. We're not going to go through all of them, but in a nutshell, the software needs to be free to use and distribute for any purpose, including commercial uses. S Now if you want to offer open source software to the world, you'll attach a license to your project, and there are a bunch of different licenses out there.

Some of the most popular include Apache, MIT, and GPL. My personal favorite is the MIT license, which is very short and basically just says, do whatever the hell you want. Source. Then the Apache license, which is also very popular and what Elasticsearch formerly used, is also very permissive, but basically says do whatever you want, s- just don't sue me. And then you might have slightly more restrictive options like GPL, which say that if you make a derivative work, then you also need to share it under an open source license.

S and sometimes big companies don't like that because they wanna take open source software and make it proprietary. Now when working with an open source project, you'll most often do on GitHub. For any given project, you should see the license in the root of the repository, and GitHub should give you a nice little breakdown of the actual bullet points in the legal jargon itself. If you're building a business with open source software, it's worth understanding what the license actually means because that could come back to bite you in a big way down the road. S Now another thing worth pointing out is that when you contribute to open source software, you may also be required to sign a contributor license agreement.

This is like the reverse of the project license. It's an agreement made by you, the contributor, allowing the company that owns the repo to do certain things with your code. They're usually only required by big companies that have big legal teams that can manage them. Sore. At the end of the day, open source is awesome because it creates an ecosystem where developers and companies can innovate much faster.

Sore. But you may be wondering, how does anyone make money off of open source software? If you build something awesome, making it open source might seem counterproductive if your goal is to make money. Surprisingly, there are a variety of highly successful business models built on open source. One example is Ruby on Rails.

It's an application framework that was used to build many high profile companies like Twitter and Shopify. But it was created by a lesser known company called Basecamp. The popularity of Rails indirectly helped Basecamp grow because it brought them a ton of positive attention and created a huge community of open source developers helping make the framework better. In other words, It turned out to be a great organic marketing tool for building a bigger brand. But there are more direct ways to make money with open source, one of which is in the form of consulting.

My friends over at Narwhal created the NX framework for managing large enterprise web applications. It's open source, but if you're a large enterprise that wants to use this framework, who better than to consult you on it than the company that created it. Although the software is free, the consulting fees are not. Red Hat also follows a similar model with 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue. So but another way to make money is to offer your software as a hosted service in the cloud, often with extra features that you can't get from the main open source software.

Soor- This is the approach that Elastic is taking where they offer additional features like security aimed at enterprise clients because that's where the money is. Source. And another example is WordPress, the most popular blog builder in the world. Even though it's open sourced, the company also offers their own hosted service that makes it much easier to set up, configure, and host a WordPress blog. And who would you rather pay for that service than the company who created the original software?

So to recap, there are 3 basic ways to make money from open source in my opinion. Use it as a marketing tool, use it to gain consulting clients, or use it to build your own paid service. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there. But before you go, make sure to let me know what you think about all this stuff in the comments. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
Elasticsearch versus AWS. It's a battle between the $1,000,000,000 David and the $1,000,000,000,000 Goliath. And the outcome could have a huge influence on the future of open source software as we know it. In today's video, we'll talk about the drama surrounding Amazon and Elastic. But more importantly, you'll learn how open source software actually works from a legal perspective and why if you're a business that uses open source software, the license granted to you by the creator does actually matter. If you're new here, like and subscribe, and let me know what you think about all this drama in the comments. As of last week, Elasticsearch will no longer be free open source software. So Going forward, it'll have a dual license, one of which is proprietary, and the other is SSPL, which is commonly known as a fopen source license. This change is a big deal because Elastic used to be licensed under Apache 2 point o, which allows commercial use with very few restrictions.
amazon
software development
software
copyright licenses
podcasts
Current Elastic users can still use the software without any negative impact. However, if you're someone like AWS that offers a fully managed Elasticsearch service, you can no longer use future releases of the software to provide that service.
For example, if I wanted to launch a startup called Jeff's Elasticsearch Service, I wouldn't be able to legally do that without permission from the company. So, basically, the license is a way to limit the dominance of big cloud providers. But in the process, it also screws over another group of SQL, anybody who's contributed to the Elasticsearch code base over the last 10 years. When you write code for an open source project, you do it under a specific license. S and most often, you're doing it unpaid in your free time with the expectation that that software will remain free and open source throughout its lifetime. When a company goes to a more restrictive license, it's like pulling the rug out from under you. Gotcha, bitch. There's nothing illegal about it, but it's like saying, hey. Thanks for your contribution. Your code is now proprietary. We're gonna make a ton of money off it, pay you absolutely nothing, and not let you build a business from our software going forward.
software
copyright licenses
software development
data management
That's a pretty lame deal if you ask me, and Elastic knows this, so which begs the question, why would they make such an unfair change in the first place? Like most things in life, it comes down to the money. Amazon is profitable and makes tons of money in the cloud with a 1.6 $1,000,000,000,000 market cap. Meanwhile, Elastic has a meager $15,000,000,000 market cap and is nowhere near profitability. I drink so Your milkshake. I drink it up.
amazon
economics
economy
revenue
commerce
Don't blame me.
So Elastic has argued that AWS has been doing things that are, quote, not okay since 2015. Some of the alleged unethical behavior includes using Elastic's trademarks without authorization, copying features offered in Elastic's cloud product, and copy and proprietary code to use in Amazon's open distro for Elasticsearch. And in a broader sense, just using and profiting from the open source software without giving back enough to the community. And Elastic is not the first high profile tech company to have issues with AWS. MongoDB is actually the original pioneer of the SSPL license. They had similar complaints and wanted to restrict the power of cloud companies to offer their software as a service.
microsoft
ibm
amazon
It's no secret that big tech companies steal or get inspired, I should say, by the features offered by other companies. So all of Instagram's features are stolen from Snapchat, and the same dynamic works in the cloud, mostly between the big three companies trying to match each other in feature parity.
instagram
S and Elastic is just one small part of a much bigger system. At the end of the day, though, it ends up being a lose lose situation for Elastic.
Had they remained open source, developers would still love them, but AWS would continue to drink their milkshake. But by making the licensing change, they pissed off a bunch of open source developers. Sore. And on top of that, Amazon called their bluff. You don't become the king by being a nice guy. Instead of saying, okay, Elastic, we'll shut down our service or pay you for a license, so Amazon said, fork you, bro. We're just going to fork your project and maintain it as an open source project going forward, where we call all the shots, so which means going forward, there are basically 2 versions of Elasticsearch out in the world.
amazon
There's the original official one with a restricted license and the new Amazon fork with the original Apache 2 point o license. The move to fork the project was expected because when MongoDB changed their license a couple of years ago, Amazon quickly created their own service called DocumentDB, which is technically a different database, but fully compatible with MongoDB. Amazon is big and powerful enough to just whip up a service like this on the fly to circumvent any damage from a licensing change. So it really makes me wonder what Elastic really has to gain from this move. Sor Maybe I'm missing something, and let me know in the comments, but it seems like the only thing that Elastic has actually gained from this move is negative press.
amazon
copyright licenses
I put a pull out on Twitter, and 2 out of 3 people would prefer to use the AWS fork over the original proprietary software. In any case, so Let's take a step back for a minute to understand what open source software really is and how it affects you as a developer or entrepreneur. Source. The authority on open source is the open source initiative, which has been around since the late nineties and is governed by a board of directors. It's not government controlled or anything like that. It's just the accepted organization by the greater tech industry. Now in order for a software to be considered open source, it needs to follow the 10 principles shown here. We're not going to go through all of them, but in a nutshell, the software needs to be free to use and distribute for any purpose, including commercial uses. S Now if you want to offer open source software to the world, you'll attach a license to your project, and there are a bunch of different licenses out there. Some of the most popular include Apache, MIT, and GPL. My personal favorite is the MIT license, which is very short and basically just says, do whatever the hell you want. Source. Then the Apache license, which is also very popular and what Elasticsearch formerly used, is also very permissive, but basically says do whatever you want, s- just don't sue me. And then you might have slightly more restrictive options like GPL, which say that if you make a derivative work, then you also need to share it under an open source license. S and sometimes big companies don't like that because they wanna take open source software and make it proprietary. Now when working with an open source project, you'll most often do on GitHub. For any given project, you should see the license in the root of the repository, and GitHub should give you a nice little breakdown of the actual bullet points in the legal jargon itself. If you're building a business with open source software, it's worth understanding what the license actually means because that could come back to bite you in a big way down the road. S Now another thing worth pointing out is that when you contribute to open source software, you may also be required to sign a contributor license agreement. This is like the reverse of the project license. It's an agreement made by you, the contributor, allowing the company that owns the repo to do certain things with your code. They're usually only required by big companies that have big legal teams that can manage them. Sore. At the end of the day, open source is awesome because it creates an ecosystem where developers and companies can innovate much faster. Sore. But you may be wondering, how does anyone make money off of open source software? If you build something awesome, making it open source might seem counterproductive if your goal is to make money. Surprisingly, there are a variety of highly successful business models built on open source. One example is Ruby on Rails.
copyright licenses
software development
software
technology
microsoft
amazon
infrastructure
internet
intellectual property
copyright
patents
customer support
It's an application framework that was used to build many high profile companies like Twitter and Shopify. But it was created by a lesser known company called Basecamp. The popularity of Rails indirectly helped Basecamp grow because it brought them a ton of positive attention and created a huge community of open source developers helping make the framework better.
In other words, It turned out to be a great organic marketing tool for building a bigger brand. But there are more direct ways to make money with open source, one of which is in the form of consulting. My friends over at Narwhal created the NX framework for managing large enterprise web applications. It's open source, but if you're a large enterprise that wants to use this framework, who better than to consult you on it than the company that created it. Although the software is free, the consulting fees are not. Red Hat also follows a similar model with 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue. So but another way to make money is to offer your software as a hosted service in the cloud, often with extra features that you can't get from the main open source software. Soor- This is the approach that Elastic is taking where they offer additional features like security aimed at enterprise clients because that's where the money is. Source. And another example is WordPress, the most popular blog builder in the world. Even though it's open sourced, the company also offers their own hosted service that makes it much easier to set up, configure, and host a WordPress blog. And who would you rather pay for that service than the company who created the original software? So to recap, there are 3 basic ways to make money from open source in my opinion. Use it as a marketing tool, use it to gain consulting clients, or use it to build your own paid service. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there. But before you go, make sure to let me know what you think about all this stuff in the comments.
blogging
customer support
software
software development
marketing
industry
websites
architecture
Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
Elasticsearch versus AWS. It's a battle between the $1,000,000,000 David and the $1,000,000,000,000 Goliath. And the outcome could have a huge influence on the future of open source software as we know it. In today's video, we'll talk about the drama surrounding Amazon and Elastic. But more importantly, you'll learn how open source software actually works from a legal perspective and why if you're a business that uses open source software, the license granted to you by the creator does actually matter. If you're new here, like and subscribe, and let me know what you think about all this drama in the comments. As of last week, Elasticsearch will no longer be free open source software. So Going forward, it'll have a dual license, one of which is proprietary, and the other is SSPL, which is commonly known as a fopen source license. This change is a big deal because Elastic used to be licensed under Apache 2 point o, which allows commercial use with very few restrictions. Current Elastic users can still use the software without any negative impact. However, if you're someone like AWS that offers a fully managed Elasticsearch service, you can no longer use future releases of the software to provide that service. For example, if I wanted to launch a startup called Jeff's Elasticsearch Service, I wouldn't be able to legally do that without permission from the company. So, basically, the license is a way to limit the dominance of big cloud providers. But in the process, it also screws over another group of SQL, anybody who's contributed to the Elasticsearch code base over the last 10 years. When you write code for an open source project, you do it under a specific license. S and most often, you're doing it unpaid in your free time with the expectation that that software will remain free and open source throughout its lifetime. When a company goes to a more restrictive license, it's like pulling the rug out from under you. Gotcha, bitch. There's nothing illegal about it, but it's like saying, hey. Thanks for your contribution. Your code is now proprietary. We're gonna make a ton of money off it, pay you absolutely nothing, and not let you build a business from our software going forward. That's a pretty lame deal if you ask me, and Elastic knows this, so which begs the question, why would they make such an unfair change in the first place? Like most things in life, it comes down to the money. Amazon is profitable and makes tons of money in the cloud with a 1.6 $1,000,000,000,000 market cap. Meanwhile, Elastic has a meager $15,000,000,000 market cap and is nowhere near profitability. I drink so Your milkshake. I drink it up. Don't blame me. So Elastic has argued that AWS has been doing things that are, quote, not okay since 2015. Some of the alleged unethical behavior includes using Elastic's trademarks without authorization, copying features offered in Elastic's cloud product, and copy and proprietary code to use in Amazon's open distro for Elasticsearch. And in a broader sense, just using and profiting from the open source software without giving back enough to the community. And Elastic is not the first high profile tech company to have issues with AWS. MongoDB is actually the original pioneer of the SSPL license. They had similar complaints and wanted to restrict the power of cloud companies to offer their software as a service. It's no secret that big tech companies steal or get inspired, I should say, by the features offered by other companies. So all of Instagram's features are stolen from Snapchat, and the same dynamic works in the cloud, mostly between the big three companies trying to match each other in feature parity. S and Elastic is just one small part of a much bigger system. At the end of the day, though, it ends up being a lose lose situation for Elastic. Had they remained open source, developers would still love them, but AWS would continue to drink their milkshake. But by making the licensing change, they pissed off a bunch of open source developers. Sore. And on top of that, Amazon called their bluff. You don't become the king by being a nice guy. Instead of saying, okay, Elastic, we'll shut down our service or pay you for a license, so Amazon said, fork you, bro. We're just going to fork your project and maintain it as an open source project going forward, where we call all the shots, so which means going forward, there are basically 2 versions of Elasticsearch out in the world. There's the original official one with a restricted license and the new Amazon fork with the original Apache 2 point o license. The move to fork the project was expected because when MongoDB changed their license a couple of years ago, Amazon quickly created their own service called DocumentDB, which is technically a different database, but fully compatible with MongoDB. Amazon is big and powerful enough to just whip up a service like this on the fly to circumvent any damage from a licensing change. So it really makes me wonder what Elastic really has to gain from this move. Sor Maybe I'm missing something, and let me know in the comments, but it seems like the only thing that Elastic has actually gained from this move is negative press. I put a pull out on Twitter, and 2 out of 3 people would prefer to use the AWS fork over the original proprietary software. In any case, so Let's take a step back for a minute to understand what open source software really is and how it affects you as a developer or entrepreneur. Source. The authority on open source is the open source initiative, which has been around since the late nineties and is governed by a board of directors. It's not government controlled or anything like that. It's just the accepted organization by the greater tech industry. Now in order for a software to be considered open source, it needs to follow the 10 principles shown here. We're not going to go through all of them, but in a nutshell, the software needs to be free to use and distribute for any purpose, including commercial uses. S Now if you want to offer open source software to the world, you'll attach a license to your project, and there are a bunch of different licenses out there. Some of the most popular include Apache, MIT, and GPL. My personal favorite is the MIT license, which is very short and basically just says, do whatever the hell you want. Source. Then the Apache license, which is also very popular and what Elasticsearch formerly used, is also very permissive, but basically says do whatever you want, s- just don't sue me. And then you might have slightly more restrictive options like GPL, which say that if you make a derivative work, then you also need to share it under an open source license. S and sometimes big companies don't like that because they wanna take open source software and make it proprietary. Now when working with an open source project, you'll most often do on GitHub. For any given project, you should see the license in the root of the repository, and GitHub should give you a nice little breakdown of the actual bullet points in the legal jargon itself. If you're building a business with open source software, it's worth understanding what the license actually means because that could come back to bite you in a big way down the road. S Now another thing worth pointing out is that when you contribute to open source software, you may also be required to sign a contributor license agreement. This is like the reverse of the project license. It's an agreement made by you, the contributor, allowing the company that owns the repo to do certain things with your code. They're usually only required by big companies that have big legal teams that can manage them. Sore. At the end of the day, open source is awesome because it creates an ecosystem where developers and companies can innovate much faster. Sore. But you may be wondering, how does anyone make money off of open source software? If you build something awesome, making it open source might seem counterproductive if your goal is to make money. Surprisingly, there are a variety of highly successful business models built on open source. One example is Ruby on Rails. It's an application framework that was used to build many high profile companies like Twitter and Shopify. But it was created by a lesser known company called Basecamp. The popularity of Rails indirectly helped Basecamp grow because it brought them a ton of positive attention and created a huge community of open source developers helping make the framework better. In other words, It turned out to be a great organic marketing tool for building a bigger brand. But there are more direct ways to make money with open source, one of which is in the form of consulting. My friends over at Narwhal created the NX framework for managing large enterprise web applications. It's open source, but if you're a large enterprise that wants to use this framework, who better than to consult you on it than the company that created it. Although the software is free, the consulting fees are not. Red Hat also follows a similar model with 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue. So but another way to make money is to offer your software as a hosted service in the cloud, often with extra features that you can't get from the main open source software. Soor- This is the approach that Elastic is taking where they offer additional features like security aimed at enterprise clients because that's where the money is. Source. And another example is WordPress, the most popular blog builder in the world. Even though it's open sourced, the company also offers their own hosted service that makes it much easier to set up, configure, and host a WordPress blog. And who would you rather pay for that service than the company who created the original software? So to recap, there are 3 basic ways to make money from open source in my opinion. Use it as a marketing tool, use it to gain consulting clients, or use it to build your own paid service. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there. But before you go, make sure to let me know what you think about all this stuff in the comments. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
Elasticsearch
elasticsearch
versus
versus
AWS.
aws
It's
it's
a
a
battle
battle
between
between
the
the
$1,000,000,000
$1,000,000,000
David
david
and
and
the
the
$1,000,000,000,000
$1,000,000,000,000
Goliath.
goliath
And
and
the
the
outcome
outcome
could
could
have
have
a
a
huge
huge
influence
influence
on
on
the
the
future
future
of
of
open
open
source
source
software
software
as
as
we
we
know
know
it.
it
In
in
today's
today's
video,
video
we'll
we'll
talk
talk
about
about
the
the
drama
drama
surrounding
surrounding
Amazon
amazon
and
and
Elastic.
elastic
But
but
more
more
importantly,
importantly
you'll
you'll
learn
learn
how
how
open
open
source
source
software
software
actually
actually
works
works
from
from
a
a
legal
legal
perspective
perspective
and
and
why
why
if
if
you're
you're
a
a
business
business
that
that
uses
uses
open
open
source
source
software,
software
the
the
license
license
granted
granted
to
to
you
you
by
by
the
the
creator
creator
does
does
actually
actually
matter.
matter
If
if
you're
you're
new
new
here,
here
like
like
and
and
subscribe,
subscribe
and
and
let
let
me
me
know
know
what
what
you
you
think
think
about
about
all
all
this
this
drama
drama
in
in
the
the
comments.
comments
As
as
of
of
last
last
week,
week
Elasticsearch
elasticsearch
will
will
no
no
longer
longer
be
be
free
free
open
open
source
source
software.
software
So
so
Going
going
forward,
forward
it'll
it'll
have
have
a
a
dual
dual
license,
license
one
one
of
of
which
which
is
is
proprietary,
proprietary
and
and
the
the
other
other
is
is
SSPL,
sspl
which
which
is
is
commonly
commonly
known
known
as
as
a
a
fopen
fopen
source
source
license.
license
This
this
change
change
is
is
a
a
big
big
deal
deal
because
because
Elastic
elastic
used
used
to
to
be
be
licensed
licensed
under
under
Apache
apache
2
2
point
point
o,
o
which
which
allows
allows
commercial
commercial
use
use
with
with
very
very
few
few
restrictions.
restrictions
Current
current
Elastic
elastic
users
users
can
can
still
still
use
use
the
the
software
software
without
without
any
any
negative
negative
impact.
impact
However,
however
if
if
you're
you're
someone
someone
like
like
AWS
aws
that
that
offers
offers
a
a
fully
fully
managed
managed
Elasticsearch
elasticsearch
service,
service
you
you
can
can
no
no
longer
longer
use
use
future
future
releases
releases
of
of
the
the
software
software
to
to
provide
provide
that
that
service.
service
For
for
example,
example
if
if
I
i
wanted
wanted
to
to
launch
launch
a
a
startup
startup
called
called
Jeff's
jeff's
Elasticsearch
elasticsearch
Service,
service
I
i
wouldn't
wouldn't
be
be
able
able
to
to
legally
legally
do
do
that
that
without
without
permission
permission
from
from
the
the
company.
company
So,
so
basically,
basically
the
the
license
license
is
is
a
a
way
way
to
to
limit
limit
the
the
dominance
dominance
of
of
big
big
cloud
cloud
providers.
providers
But
but
in
in
the
the
process,
process
it
it
also
also
screws
screws
over
over
another
another
group
group
of
of
SQL,
sql
anybody
anybody
who's
who's
contributed
contributed
to
to
the
the
Elasticsearch
elasticsearch
code
code
base
base
over
over
the
the
last
last
10
10
years.
years
When
when
you
you
write
write
code
code
for
for
an
an
open
open
source
source
project,
project
you
you
do
do
it
it
under
under
a
a
specific
specific
license.
license
S
s
and
and
most
most
often,
often
you're
you're
doing
doing
it
it
unpaid
unpaid
in
in
your
your
free
free
time
time
with
with
the
the
expectation
expectation
that
that
that
that
software
software
will
will
remain
remain
free
free
and
and
open
open
source
source
throughout
throughout
its
its
lifetime.
lifetime
When
when
a
a
company
company
goes
goes
to
to
a
a
more
more
restrictive
restrictive
license,
license
it's
it's
like
like
pulling
pulling
the
the
rug
rug
out
out
from
from
under
under
you.
you
Gotcha,
gotcha
bitch.
bitch
There's
there's
nothing
nothing
illegal
illegal
about
about
it,
it
but
but
it's
it's
like
like
saying,
saying
hey.
hey
Thanks
thanks
for
for
your
your
contribution.
contribution
Your
your
code
code
is
is
now
now
proprietary.
proprietary
We're
we're
gonna
gonna
make
make
a
a
ton
ton
of
of
money
money
off
off
it,
it
pay
pay
you
you
absolutely
absolutely
nothing,
nothing
and
and
not
not
let
let
you
you
build
build
a
a
business
business
from
from
our
our
software
software
going
going
forward.
forward
That's
that's
a
a
pretty
pretty
lame
lame
deal
deal
if
if
you
you
ask
ask
me,
me
and
and
Elastic
elastic
knows
knows
this,
this
so
so
which
which
begs
begs
the
the
question,
question
why
why
would
would
they
they
make
make
such
such
an
an
unfair
unfair
change
change
in
in
the
the
first
first
place?
place
Like
like
most
most
things
things
in
in
life,
life
it
it
comes
comes
down
down
to
to
the
the
money.
money
Amazon
amazon
is
is
profitable
profitable
and
and
makes
makes
tons
tons
of
of
money
money
in
in
the
the
cloud
cloud
with
with
a
a
1.6
1.6
$1,000,000,000,000
$1,000,000,000,000
market
market
cap.
cap
Meanwhile,
meanwhile
Elastic
elastic
has
has
a
a
meager
meager
$15,000,000,000
$15,000,000,000
market
market
cap
cap
and
and
is
is
nowhere
nowhere
near
near
profitability.
profitability
I
i
drink
drink
so
so
Your
your
milkshake.
milkshake
I
i
drink
drink
it
it
up.
up
Don't
don't
blame
blame
me.
me
So
so
Elastic
elastic
has
has
argued
argued
that
that
AWS
aws
has
has
been
been
doing
doing
things
things
that
that
are,
are
quote,
quote
not
not
okay
okay
since
since
2015.
2015
Some
some
of
of
the
the
alleged
alleged
unethical
unethical
behavior
behavior
includes
includes
using
using
Elastic's
elastic's
trademarks
trademarks
without
without
authorization,
authorization
copying
copying
features
features
offered
offered
in
in
Elastic's
elastic's
cloud
cloud
product,
product
and
and
copy
copy
and
and
proprietary
proprietary
code
code
to
to
use
use
in
in
Amazon's
amazon's
open
open
distro
distro
for
for
Elasticsearch.
elasticsearch
And
and
in
in
a
a
broader
broader
sense,
sense
just
just
using
using
and
and
profiting
profiting
from
from
the
the
open
open
source
source
software
software
without
without
giving
giving
back
back
enough
enough
to
to
the
the
community.
community
And
and
Elastic
elastic
is
is
not
not
the
the
first
first
high
high
profile
profile
tech
tech
company
company
to
to
have
have
issues
issues
with
with
AWS.
aws
MongoDB
mongodb
is
is
actually
actually
the
the
original
original
pioneer
pioneer
of
of
the
the
SSPL
sspl
license.
license
They
they
had
had
similar
similar
complaints
complaints
and
and
wanted
wanted
to
to
restrict
restrict
the
the
power
power
of
of
cloud
cloud
companies
companies
to
to
offer
offer
their
their
software
software
as
as
a
a
service.
service
It's
it's
no
no
secret
secret
that
that
big
big
tech
tech
companies
companies
steal
steal
or
or
get
get
inspired,
inspired
I
i
should
should
say,
say
by
by
the
the
features
features
offered
offered
by
by
other
other
companies.
companies
So
so
all
all
of
of
Instagram's
instagram's
features
features
are
are
stolen
stolen
from
from
Snapchat,
snapchat
and
and
the
the
same
same
dynamic
dynamic
works
works
in
in
the
the
cloud,
cloud
mostly
mostly
between
between
the
the
big
big
three
three
companies
companies
trying
trying
to
to
match
match
each
each
other
other
in
in
feature
feature
parity.
parity
S
s
and
and
Elastic
elastic
is
is
just
just
one
one
small
small
part
part
of
of
a
a
much
much
bigger
bigger
system.
system
At
at
the
the
end
end
of
of
the
the
day,
day
though,
though
it
it
ends
ends
up
up
being
being
a
a
lose
lose
lose
lose
situation
situation
for
for
Elastic.
elastic
Had
had
they
they
remained
remained
open
open
source,
source
developers
developers
would
would
still
still
love
love
them,
them
but
but
AWS
aws
would
would
continue
continue
to
to
drink
drink
their
their
milkshake.
milkshake
But
but
by
by
making
making
the
the
licensing
licensing
change,
change
they
they
pissed
pissed
off
off
a
a
bunch
bunch
of
of
open
open
source
source
developers.
developers
Sore.
sore
And
and
on
on
top
top
of
of
that,
that
Amazon
amazon
called
called
their
their
bluff.
bluff
You
you
don't
don't
become
become
the
the
king
king
by
by
being
being
a
a
nice
nice
guy.
guy
Instead
instead
of
of
saying,
saying
okay,
okay
Elastic,
elastic
we'll
we'll
shut
shut
down
down
our
our
service
service
or
or
pay
pay
you
you
for
for
a
a
license,
license
so
so
Amazon
amazon
said,
said
fork
fork
you,
you
bro.
bro
We're
we're
just
just
going
going
to
to
fork
fork
your
your
project
project
and
and
maintain
maintain
it
it
as
as
an
an
open
open
source
source
project
project
going
going
forward,
forward
where
where
we
we
call
call
all
all
the
the
shots,
shots
so
so
which
which
means
means
going
going
forward,
forward
there
there
are
are
basically
basically
2
2
versions
versions
of
of
Elasticsearch
elasticsearch
out
out
in
in
the
the
world.
world
There's
there's
the
the
original
original
official
official
one
one
with
with
a
a
restricted
restricted
license
license
and
and
the
the
new
new
Amazon
amazon
fork
fork
with
with
the
the
original
original
Apache
apache
2
2
point
point
o
o
license.
license
The
the
move
move
to
to
fork
fork
the
the
project
project
was
was
expected
expected
because
because
when
when
MongoDB
mongodb
changed
changed
their
their
license
license
a
a
couple
couple
of
of
years
years
ago,
ago
Amazon
amazon
quickly
quickly
created
created
their
their
own
own
service
service
called
called
DocumentDB,
documentdb
which
which
is
is
technically
technically
a
a
different
different
database,
database
but
but
fully
fully
compatible
compatible
with
with
MongoDB.
mongodb
Amazon
amazon
is
is
big
big
and
and
powerful
powerful
enough
enough
to
to
just
just
whip
whip
up
up
a
a
service
service
like
like
this
this
on
on
the
the
fly
fly
to
to
circumvent
circumvent
any
any
damage
damage
from
from
a
a
licensing
licensing
change.
change
So
so
it
it
really
really
makes
makes
me
me
wonder
wonder
what
what
Elastic
elastic
really
really
has
has
to
to
gain
gain
from
from
this
this
move.
move
Sor
sor
Maybe
maybe
I'm
i'm
missing
missing
something,
something
and
and
let
let
me
me
know
know
in
in
the
the
comments,
comments
but
but
it
it
seems
seems
like
like
the
the
only
only
thing
thing
that
that
Elastic
elastic
has
has
actually
actually
gained
gained
from
from
this
this
move
move
is
is
negative
negative
press.
press
I
i
put
put
a
a
pull
pull
out
out
on
on
Twitter,
twitter
and
and
2
2
out
out
of
of
3
3
people
people
would
would
prefer
prefer
to
to
use
use
the
the
AWS
aws
fork
fork
over
over
the
the
original
original
proprietary
proprietary
software.
software
In
in
any
any
case,
case
so
so
Let's
let's
take
take
a
a
step
step
back
back
for
for
a
a
minute
minute
to
to
understand
understand
what
what
open
open
source
source
software
software
really
really
is
is
and
and
how
how
it
it
affects
affects
you
you
as
as
a
a
developer
developer
or
or
entrepreneur.
entrepreneur
Source.
source
The
the
authority
authority
on
on
open
open
source
source
is
is
the
the
open
open
source
source
initiative,
initiative
which
which
has
has
been
been
around
around
since
since
the
the
late
late
nineties
nineties
and
and
is
is
governed
governed
by
by
a
a
board
board
of
of
directors.
directors
It's
it's
not
not
government
government
controlled
controlled
or
or
anything
anything
like
like
that.
that
It's
it's
just
just
the
the
accepted
accepted
organization
organization
by
by
the
the
greater
greater
tech
tech
industry.
industry
Now
now
in
in
order
order
for
for
a
a
software
software
to
to
be
be
considered
considered
open
open
source,
source
it
it
needs
needs
to
to
follow
follow
the
the
10
10
principles
principles
shown
shown
here.
here
We're
we're
not
not
going
going
to
to
go
go
through
through
all
all
of
of
them,
them
but
but
in
in
a
a
nutshell,
nutshell
the
the
software
software
needs
needs
to
to
be
be
free
free
to
to
use
use
and
and
distribute
distribute
for
for
any
any
purpose,
purpose
including
including
commercial
commercial
uses.
uses
S
s
Now
now
if
if
you
you
want
want
to
to
offer
offer
open
open
source
source
software
software
to
to
the
the
world,
world
you'll
you'll
attach
attach
a
a
license
license
to
to
your
your
project,
project
and
and
there
there
are
are
a
a
bunch
bunch
of
of
different
different
licenses
licenses
out
out
there.
there
Some
some
of
of
the
the
most
most
popular
popular
include
include
Apache,
apache
MIT,
mit
and
and
GPL.
gpl
My
my
personal
personal
favorite
favorite
is
is
the
the
MIT
mit
license,
license
which
which
is
is
very
very
short
short
and
and
basically
basically
just
just
says,
says
do
do
whatever
whatever
the
the
hell
hell
you
you
want.
want
Source.
source
Then
then
the
the
Apache
apache
license,
license
which
which
is
is
also
also
very
very
popular
popular
and
and
what
what
Elasticsearch
elasticsearch
formerly
formerly
used,
used
is
is
also
also
very
very
permissive,
permissive
but
but
basically
basically
says
says
do
do
whatever
whatever
you
you
want,
want
s-
s-
just
just
don't
don't
sue
sue
me.
me
And
and
then
then
you
you
might
might
have
have
slightly
slightly
more
more
restrictive
restrictive
options
options
like
like
GPL,
gpl
which
which
say
say
that
that
if
if
you
you
make
make
a
a
derivative
derivative
work,
work
then
then
you
you
also
also
need
need
to
to
share
share
it
it
under
under
an
an
open
open
source
source
license.
license
S
s
and
and
sometimes
sometimes
big
big
companies
companies
don't
don't
like
like
that
that
because
because
they
they
wanna
wanna
take
take
open
open
source
source
software
software
and
and
make
make
it
it
proprietary.
proprietary
Now
now
when
when
working
working
with
with
an
an
open
open
source
source
project,
project
you'll
you'll
most
most
often
often
do
do
on
on
GitHub.
github
For
for
any
any
given
given
project,
project
you
you
should
should
see
see
the
the
license
license
in
in
the
the
root
root
of
of
the
the
repository,
repository
and
and
GitHub
github
should
should
give
give
you
you
a
a
nice
nice
little
little
breakdown
breakdown
of
of
the
the
actual
actual
bullet
bullet
points
points
in
in
the
the
legal
legal
jargon
jargon
itself.
itself
If
if
you're
you're
building
building
a
a
business
business
with
with
open
open
source
source
software,
software
it's
it's
worth
worth
understanding
understanding
what
what
the
the
license
license
actually
actually
means
means
because
because
that
that
could
could
come
come
back
back
to
to
bite
bite
you
you
in
in
a
a
big
big
way
way
down
down
the
the
road.
road
S
s
Now
now
another
another
thing
thing
worth
worth
pointing
pointing
out
out
is
is
that
that
when
when
you
you
contribute
contribute
to
to
open
open
source
source
software,
software
you
you
may
may
also
also
be
be
required
required
to
to
sign
sign
a
a
contributor
contributor
license
license
agreement.
agreement
This
this
is
is
like
like
the
the
reverse
reverse
of
of
the
the
project
project
license.
license
It's
it's
an
an
agreement
agreement
made
made
by
by
you,
you
the
the
contributor,
contributor
allowing
allowing
the
the
company
company
that
that
owns
owns
the
the
repo
repo
to
to
do
do
certain
certain
things
things
with
with
your
your
code.
code
They're
they're
usually
usually
only
only
required
required
by
by
big
big
companies
companies
that
that
have
have
big
big
legal
legal
teams
teams
that
that
can
can
manage
manage
them.
them
Sore.
sore
At
at
the
the
end
end
of
of
the
the
day,
day
open
open
source
source
is
is
awesome
awesome
because
because
it
it
creates
creates
an
an
ecosystem
ecosystem
where
where
developers
developers
and
and
companies
companies
can
can
innovate
innovate
much
much
faster.
faster
Sore.
sore
But
but
you
you
may
may
be
be
wondering,
wondering
how
how
does
does
anyone
anyone
make
make
money
money
off
off
of
of
open
open
source
source
software?
software
If
if
you
you
build
build
something
something
awesome,
awesome
making
making
it
it
open
open
source
source
might
might
seem
seem
counterproductive
counterproductive
if
if
your
your
goal
goal
is
is
to
to
make
make
money.
money
Surprisingly,
surprisingly
there
there
are
are
a
a
variety
variety
of
of
highly
highly
successful
successful
business
business
models
models
built
built
on
on
open
open
source.
source
One
one
example
example
is
is
Ruby
ruby
on
on
Rails.
rails
It's
it's
an
an
application
application
framework
framework
that
that
was
was
used
used
to
to
build
build
many
many
high
high
profile
profile
companies
companies
like
like
Twitter
twitter
and
and
Shopify.
shopify
But
but
it
it
was
was
created
created
by
by
a
a
lesser
lesser
known
known
company
company
called
called
Basecamp.
basecamp
The
the
popularity
popularity
of
of
Rails
rails
indirectly
indirectly
helped
helped
Basecamp
basecamp
grow
grow
because
because
it
it
brought
brought
them
them
a
a
ton
ton
of
of
positive
positive
attention
attention
and
and
created
created
a
a
huge
huge
community
community
of
of
open
open
source
source
developers
developers
helping
helping
make
make
the
the
framework
framework
better.
better
In
in
other
other
words,
words
It
it
turned
turned
out
out
to
to
be
be
a
a
great
great
organic
organic
marketing
marketing
tool
tool
for
for
building
building
a
a
bigger
bigger
brand.
brand
But
but
there
there
are
are
more
more
direct
direct
ways
ways
to
to
make
make
money
money
with
with
open
open
source,
source
one
one
of
of
which
which
is
is
in
in
the
the
form
form
of
of
consulting.
consulting
My
my
friends
friends
over
over
at
at
Narwhal
narwhal
created
created
the
the
NX
nx
framework
framework
for
for
managing
managing
large
large
enterprise
enterprise
web
web
applications.
applications
It's
it's
open
open
source,
source
but
but
if
if
you're
you're
a
a
large
large
enterprise
enterprise
that
that
wants
wants
to
to
use
use
this
this
framework,
framework
who
who
better
better
than
than
to
to
consult
consult
you
you
on
on
it
it
than
than
the
the
company
company
that
that
created
created
it.
it
Although
although
the
the
software
software
is
is
free,
free
the
the
consulting
consulting
fees
fees
are
are
not.
not
Red
red
Hat
hat
also
also
follows
follows
a
a
similar
similar
model
model
with
with
1,000,000,000
1,000,000,000
of
of
dollars
dollars
in
in
revenue.
revenue
So
so
but
but
another
another
way
way
to
to
make
make
money
money
is
is
to
to
offer
offer
your
your
software
software
as
as
a
a
hosted
hosted
service
service
in
in
the
the
cloud,
cloud
often
often
with
with
extra
extra
features
features
that
that
you
you
can't
can't
get
get
from
from
the
the
main
main
open
open
source
source
software.
software
Soor-
soor-
This
this
is
is
the
the
approach
approach
that
that
Elastic
elastic
is
is
taking
taking
where
where
they
they
offer
offer
additional
additional
features
features
like
like
security
security
aimed
aimed
at
at
enterprise
enterprise
clients
clients
because
because
that's
that's
where
where
the
the
money
money
is.
is
Source.
source
And
and
another
another
example
example
is
is
WordPress,
wordpress
the
the
most
most
popular
popular
blog
blog
builder
builder
in
in
the
the
world.
world
Even
even
though
though
it's
it's
open
open
sourced,
sourced
the
the
company
company
also
also
offers
offers
their
their
own
own
hosted
hosted
service
service
that
that
makes
makes
it
it
much
much
easier
easier
to
to
set
set
up,
up
configure,
configure
and
and
host
host
a
a
WordPress
wordpress
blog.
blog
And
and
who
who
would
would
you
you
rather
rather
pay
pay
for
for
that
that
service
service
than
than
the
the
company
company
who
who
created
created
the
the
original
original
software?
software
So
so
to
to
recap,
recap
there
there
are
are
3
3
basic
basic
ways
ways
to
to
make
make
money
money
from
from
open
open
source
source
in
in
my
my
opinion.
opinion
Use
use
it
it
as
as
a
a
marketing
marketing
tool,
tool
use
use
it
it
to
to
gain
gain
consulting
consulting
clients,
clients
or
or
use
use
it
it
to
to
build
build
your
your
own
own
paid
paid
service.
service
I'm
i'm
gonna
gonna
go
go
ahead
ahead
and
and
wrap
wrap
things
things
up
up
there.
there
But
but
before
before
you
you
go,
go
make
make
sure
sure
to
to
let
let
me
me
know
know
what
what
you
you
think
think
about
about
all
all
this
this
stuff
stuff
in
in
the
the
comments.
comments
Thanks
thanks
for
for
watching,
watching
and
and
I
i
will
will
see
see
you
you
in
in
the
the
next
next
one.
one
success
 Open source software has the potential loss of open source software for big tech companies, and the legal consequence of a license change for AWS is discussed. Open source is important for creating projects that are open and distributeable for the community, and the 10 principles of open source include the importance of free and distributeable software, privacy, and signing a contributor license agreement. The speaker suggests ways to make money from open source, including consulting and building paid services, and provides examples of models used to make money from open source software.
Fork you ElasticSearch! How Open Source Works
Elasticsearch versus AWS. It's a battle between the $1,000,000,000 David and the $1,000,000,000,000 Goliath. And the outcome could have a huge influence on the future of open source software as we know it. In today's video, we'll talk about the drama surrounding Amazon and Elastic. But more importantly, you'll learn how open source software actually works from a legal perspective and why if you're a business that uses open source software, the license granted to you by the creator does actually matter. If you're new here, like and subscribe, and let me know what you think about all this drama in the comments. As of last week, Elasticsearch will no longer be free open source software. So Going forward, it'll have a dual license, one of which is proprietary, and the other is SSPL, which is commonly known as a fopen source license. This change is a big deal because Elastic used to be licensed under Apache 2 point o, which allows commercial use with very few restrictions. Current Elastic users can still use the software without any negative impact. However, if you're someone like AWS that offers a fully managed Elasticsearch service, you can no longer use future releases of the software to provide that service. For example, if I wanted to launch a startup called Jeff's Elasticsearch Service, I wouldn't be able to legally do that without permission from the company. So, basically, the license is a way to limit the dominance of big cloud providers. But in the process, it also screws over another group of SQL, anybody who's contributed to the Elasticsearch code base over the last 10 years. When you write code for an open source project, you do it under a specific license. S and most often, you're doing it unpaid in your free time with the expectation that that software will remain free and open source throughout its lifetime. When a company goes to a more restrictive license, it's like pulling the rug out from under you. Gotcha, bitch. There's nothing illegal about it, but it's like saying, hey. Thanks for your contribution. Your code is now proprietary. We're gonna make a ton of money off it, pay you absolutely nothing, and not let you build a business from our software going forward. That's a pretty lame deal if you ask me, and Elastic knows this, so which begs the question, why would they make such an unfair change in the first place? Like most things in life, it comes down to the money. Amazon is profitable and makes tons of money in the cloud with a 1.6 $1,000,000,000,000 market cap. Meanwhile, Elastic has a meager $15,000,000,000 market cap and is nowhere near profitability. I drink so Your milkshake. I drink it up. Don't blame me. So Elastic has argued that AWS has been doing things that are, quote, not okay since 2015. Some of the alleged unethical behavior includes using Elastic's trademarks without authorization, copying features offered in Elastic's cloud product, and copy and proprietary code to use in Amazon's open distro for Elasticsearch. And in a broader sense, just using and profiting from the open source software without giving back enough to the community. And Elastic is not the first high profile tech company to have issues with AWS. MongoDB is actually the original pioneer of the SSPL license. They had similar complaints and wanted to restrict the power of cloud companies to offer their software as a service. It's no secret that big tech companies steal or get inspired, I should say, by the features offered by other companies. So all of Instagram's features are stolen from Snapchat, and the same dynamic works in the cloud, mostly between the big three companies trying to match each other in feature parity. S and Elastic is just one small part of a much bigger system. At the end of the day, though, it ends up being a lose lose situation for Elastic. Had they remained open source, developers would still love them, but AWS would continue to drink their milkshake. But by making the licensing change, they pissed off a bunch of open source developers. Sore. And on top of that, Amazon called their bluff. You don't become the king by being a nice guy. Instead of saying, okay, Elastic, we'll shut down our service or pay you for a license, so Amazon said, fork you, bro. We're just going to fork your project and maintain it as an open source project going forward, where we call all the shots, so which means going forward, there are basically 2 versions of Elasticsearch out in the world. There's the original official one with a restricted license and the new Amazon fork with the original Apache 2 point o license. The move to fork the project was expected because when MongoDB changed their license a couple of years ago, Amazon quickly created their own service called DocumentDB, which is technically a different database, but fully compatible with MongoDB. Amazon is big and powerful enough to just whip up a service like this on the fly to circumvent any damage from a licensing change. So it really makes me wonder what Elastic really has to gain from this move. Sor Maybe I'm missing something, and let me know in the comments, but it seems like the only thing that Elastic has actually gained from this move is negative press. I put a pull out on Twitter, and 2 out of 3 people would prefer to use the AWS fork over the original proprietary software. In any case, so Let's take a step back for a minute to understand what open source software really is and how it affects you as a developer or entrepreneur. Source. The authority on open source is the open source initiative, which has been around since the late nineties and is governed by a board of directors. It's not government controlled or anything like that. It's just the accepted organization by the greater tech industry. Now in order for a software to be considered open source, it needs to follow the 10 principles shown here. We're not going to go through all of them, but in a nutshell, the software needs to be free to use and distribute for any purpose, including commercial uses. S Now if you want to offer open source software to the world, you'll attach a license to your project, and there are a bunch of different licenses out there. Some of the most popular include Apache, MIT, and GPL. My personal favorite is the MIT license, which is very short and basically just says, do whatever the hell you want. Source. Then the Apache license, which is also very popular and what Elasticsearch formerly used, is also very permissive, but basically says do whatever you want, s- just don't sue me. And then you might have slightly more restrictive options like GPL, which say that if you make a derivative work, then you also need to share it under an open source license. S and sometimes big companies don't like that because they wanna take open source software and make it proprietary. Now when working with an open source project, you'll most often do on GitHub. For any given project, you should see the license in the root of the repository, and GitHub should give you a nice little breakdown of the actual bullet points in the legal jargon itself. If you're building a business with open source software, it's worth understanding what the license actually means because that could come back to bite you in a big way down the road. S Now another thing worth pointing out is that when you contribute to open source software, you may also be required to sign a contributor license agreement. This is like the reverse of the project license. It's an agreement made by you, the contributor, allowing the company that owns the repo to do certain things with your code. They're usually only required by big companies that have big legal teams that can manage them. Sore. At the end of the day, open source is awesome because it creates an ecosystem where developers and companies can innovate much faster. Sore. But you may be wondering, how does anyone make money off of open source software? If you build something awesome, making it open source might seem counterproductive if your goal is to make money. Surprisingly, there are a variety of highly successful business models built on open source. One example is Ruby on Rails. It's an application framework that was used to build many high profile companies like Twitter and Shopify. But it was created by a lesser known company called Basecamp. The popularity of Rails indirectly helped Basecamp grow because it brought them a ton of positive attention and created a huge community of open source developers helping make the framework better. In other words, It turned out to be a great organic marketing tool for building a bigger brand. But there are more direct ways to make money with open source, one of which is in the form of consulting. My friends over at Narwhal created the NX framework for managing large enterprise web applications. It's open source, but if you're a large enterprise that wants to use this framework, who better than to consult you on it than the company that created it. Although the software is free, the consulting fees are not. Red Hat also follows a similar model with 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue. So but another way to make money is to offer your software as a hosted service in the cloud, often with extra features that you can't get from the main open source software. Soor- This is the approach that Elastic is taking where they offer additional features like security aimed at enterprise clients because that's where the money is. Source. And another example is WordPress, the most popular blog builder in the world. Even though it's open sourced, the company also offers their own hosted service that makes it much easier to set up, configure, and host a WordPress blog. And who would you rather pay for that service than the company who created the original software? So to recap, there are 3 basic ways to make money from open source in my opinion. Use it as a marketing tool, use it to gain consulting clients, or use it to build your own paid service. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there. But before you go, make sure to let me know what you think about all this stuff in the comments. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
 Open source software has the potential loss of open source software for big tech companies, and the legal consequence of a license change for AWS is discussed. Open source is important for creating projects that are open and distributeable for the community, and the 10 principles of open source include the importance of free and distributeable software, privacy, and signing a contributor license agreement. The speaker suggests ways to make money from open source, including consulting and building paid services, and provides examples of models used to make money from open source software.