Ask HN: Why Neo4j can have both GPLv3 and closed-source licenses

1 points by dnqthao 3 years ago | 2 comments

So Neo4j has 2 different editions:

- Community Edition: open source with GPLv3 license

- Enterprise Edition: closed source

From my understanding, if you derive a work from a GPLv3 license project, you will also need to open source your derived work under the same license. Is it possible that Neo4j can just closed source the enterprise version (that derived from the community version) while keeping the community version GPLv3 license?

AndrewBowman 3 years ago |

The purpose of a license is to grant rights under conditions to those who would otherwise have no rights to use or modify the software at all.

As the copyright owner, you already have full rights to use the code you wrote the way you want, so you do not need to enter a license agreement with yourself to gain rights that you already have. And so you are not subjected to the license; the license is between you as the copyright owner granting rights to others who are NOT the copyright owner.

As far as public contributions to the GPL'd code (such as Neo4j Community Edition), usually there are agreements that are made (contributor license agreements or copyright transfer agreements) prior to merging the contributed code that resolve issues of relicensing and usage.

This answer on StackExchange provides some good detail.

https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/2077/so-the-g...

elviejo 3 years ago |

When you are the creator of the software you can license it however you want. So it is common to have a free software license for the community project and a closed source for the paid version.

Since Neo4j Inc. Is the creator of the software they can license it in multiple ways.

For more info: Business models for open-source software: Dual license

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_models_for_open-sou...