Connecting Kallithea and RhodeCode

Thu Sep 1 22:37:33 UTC 2016

Hi Dmitry,

It doesn't matter if you require copyright assignment or MIT licensed
patches. Different name, same game: You're clearly trying to build a
business on 1) having an AGPL code base and then hoping that
organizations find the AGPL terms sufficiently onerous that they'll
pay for a GPL exception, and 2) having an "open core" code base and
selling proprietary extensions.

Why should I contribute to RhodeCode under your CLA and support your
proprietary business, when I can spend my time on an established open
source project that doesn't play weird license games, isn't
feature-limited by design, and doesn't have the maintenance overhead
of AGPL?

Setting aside the fact that the code bases have diverged quite a lot
since the fork, I just don't see any particular opportunities for
collaboration between the projects.

Any cross-pollination from Kallithea to RhodeCode would be legally
dubious. If I develop a patch against Kallithea, I cannot license the
same patch to you under the MIT license, since my patch would likely
be considered a derived work from the GPL-licensed Kallithea.

Of course, should you want to send them our way, your MIT-licensed
RhodeCode changes are welcome in Kallithea... assuming they merge
cleanly.

Best,
Søren

On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 11:53 PM, Dmitry Konchalenkov
<dmitry at rhodecode.com> wrote:
> Andrew,
>
> Thanks for looping in other members! I'm sorry if my email came across the
> wrong way. The tracking code has nothing to do with intentions: it’s being
> applied by a popular Gmail plugin. I’ve disabled the plug-in for this reply.
>
> I want to follow up on just two points: collaboration and RhodeCode’s CLA.
> My goal was to find out how best to invite any interested members of the
> Kallithea community to also join our community. RhodeCode uses the AGPLv3
> license. Like yours, our community is open. We respect the skills and
> creativity of the people on this thread. I’ll reiterate the invitation here.
>
> Second, RhodeCode’s CLA does not require any copyright assignment. It also
> does not impose restrictions on what the copyright holder (contributing
> developer) can do with their work. It’s on our web site for any potential
> contributors to see up front.
>
> I am here not to debate the relative merits of our respective licenses or
> goals. More than willing to answer questions about our project and related
> topics, if there are community members who are interested. My regards to the
> people on this thread and thank you again for putting me in touch.
>
> Thanks,
> Dmitry.
>
> On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 7:34 PM, Andrew Shadura <andrew at shadura.me> wrote:
>>
>> [Cc'ed Kallithea mailing list]
>>
>> Hi Dmitry,
>>
>> On 31/08/16 19:30, Dmitry Konchalenkov wrote:
>> > Hi Andrew,
>> >
>> > My name is Dmitry, I recently joined RhodeCode. I saw your email on the
>> > Mailing List of Kallithea and decided to reach out to you directly, hope
>> > it is appropriate.
>>
>> Well, actually I find this very inappropriate. If you have indeed been
>> reading Kallithea mailing list for some time, you should know that it is
>> the appropriate way to contact community for all such inquiries.
>> Instead, you decided to ‘reach out’ to me directly, which makes me doubt
>> sincerity of your intentions.
>>
>> > <div hspace="streak-pt-mark" style="max-height:1px"><img
>> > style="width:0px;max-height:0px;overflow:hidden"
>> > src="https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=aZG1pdHJ5QHJob2RlY29kZS5jb20%3D&type=zerocontent&guid=f62c2f3d-3bf0-4dbd-bd2c-fc2affaf5539"><font
>> > color="#ffffff" size="1">ᐧ</font></div>
>>
>> This tracking code also doesn’t suggest your intentions are good.
>>
>> > It’s been two years since Kallithea was launched. I’ve been following
>> > the development of Kallithea, and ever since RhodeCode went open source
>> >
>> > <https://rhodecode.com/blog/113/rhodecode-goes-open-source-unified-security-for-git-svn-mercurial>,
>> > I thought about whether we could start some type of collaboration with
>> > Kallithea community. Connecting the Kallithea and RhodeCode communities
>> > will benefit everyone, notably users. In the end, we share the same
>> > goal: creating an open platform for source code management, secure,
>> > reliable, and easy-to-use.
>>
>> To me, RhodeCode’s license choice, as well as requirement of copyright
>> assignment which gives RhodeCode right to use contributions for any
>> purpose and at the same time preventing others from doing the same (or
>> using it under the GPL), shows RhodeCode has intentioanlly decided to
>> not make RhodeCode free and open software project.
>>
>> RhodeCode has made their code incompatible with Kallithea, leaving no
>> options for collaboration.
>>
>> P.S. Obviously, all the above is my personal opinion and doesn’t reflect
>> the position of the project as a whole.
>>
>> > Would you have time for a short call
>> > <https://calendly.com/rhodecode/rhodecode-call/>? I would love to hear
>> > your thoughts and perspectives on that.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Dmitry.
>> > --
>> > Dmitry Konchalenkov
>> > Sr.Marketing Manager
>> > RhodeCode
>> > rhodecode.com <https://rhodecode.com/>
>> >
>> > Enterprise Source Code Management. Unified.
>> > Contact us: Web <https://rhodecode.com/> • Twitter
>> > <https://twitter.com/rhodecode> • Community
>> > <http://community.rhodecode.com/> • Slack <https://rhodecode.com/join>
>> > ᐧ
>>
>> --
>> Cheers,
>>   Andrew
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kallithea-general mailing list
> kallithea-general at sfconservancy.org
> http://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/kallithea-general
>