Does planka licence limit collaboration?

[einarpersson]

Hi!

I'm a bit confused after reading the licence guide.

Not allowed

Use of PLANKA to connect your own legal entity with legal entities or persons outside your own legal entity.

Allowed

Using PLANKA to control your internal processes and manage your internal projects.

I am part of a couple of communities. Some of these communities are informal (no legal entity at all), other are formalised non-profits. The above for me seem to imply limitations on collaboration with people from other organisations, or between organisations. But surely you don't want to limit collaborations between non-profit associations who in no way charge for planka - or people coming together from various organisations (or as private persons) for community projects?

Or to put it another way - is it the internal/external dimension that is crucial, or is it whether planka is somehow being charged for? I really hope it is the latter (it makes sense) and not the former.

[seals187]

I dont think you will get in any trouble if you use Planka to collaborate with different communitites.
you don't charge anything for using it or do you ?

[einarpersson]

Well, I think the same thing. But I'd wish that the license would be more clear on this - that it is the "charging for the service"-thing that makes the difference.

Can a non-profit A have a shared board with non-profit B on a joint project for example?

[einarpersson]

Any planka team members able to provide feedback on this? @nickbe perhaps?

[meltyshev]

Hi! Thanks for your question. Since other priorities, including the release itself, took precedence, we haven’t yet finalized the terms for non-profit organizations.

However, the topic is on our meeting agenda and will be discussed in detail. Once we've reached a clear agreement, we'll publish the terms and/or adjust the license as necessary.

[einarpersson]

Any update on this?

Key question: is it "charging for planka" that you want to limit, or is it external collaboration? If it is the latter then it's much more restrictive than I would've hoped.

I would hope that the actual license aligns with its purpose. And the primary purpose, I suppose, is to protect Planka? So that you alone can offer an effortless paid cloud version, without copycats.

Or is it to put restrictions so that a org cannot benefit fully from the platform (eg. external projects) without acquiring a license? That would be more... bad.. imo

[daniel-hiller]

Hi @einarpersson,
We're currently in the process of adding all the necessary information for non-profits to our license guide.
We don't have all the details available just yet, but we're working on it and should have everything updated by Monday.

If you could hold tight until then, we'd really appreciate it.
We want to make sure you have complete and accurate information when you check back.

Thanks for your patience!

[meltyshev]

Hi @einarpersson,

Sorry we didn't get it done by Monday. We need a bit more time to go over everything and make the necessary legal adjustments. We're working on it and aiming to finish as soon as possible.

[meltyshev]

Thank you for waiting! We've added more details to the license and the guide:

Permitted Use

You may use or modify PLANKA (a) for personal, hobby, or educational purposes, (b) internally within your own organization, (c) for private hosting for a typical number of friends, family, or personal projects, (d) to provide free access to non-profit organizations (as recognized by applicable tax authorities), or if you are a recognized non-profit organization yourself involving external users into your mission, and (e) public educational institutions for academic/research purposes only.

Restricted Use

Sharing accounts/credentials with third parties for business purposes or operating PLANKA as a hosted service for any commercial gain whatsoever is prohibited. Commercial gain includes any form of payment, advertising revenue, data monetization, or indirect commercial benefit or business advantage.

These updates will be available in the v2.0.0-rc.3 release.

[meltyshev]

Is commercial collaboration between two companies allowed? (If company A isnt providing it as a service for company B/C/D/.., but rather just use the board for temporary coordination on something).

If Company A has a business/commercial relationship with Company B, then using PLANKA under the Fair Use License is not permitted. In such cases, a PLANKA Enterprise License is required (or, alternatively, a subscription to our upcoming hosted service). We made this decision because in these scenarios, PLANKA is considered part of the service being provided to the client - even if the client does not pay directly for access to the app. Additionally, without this clause, companies could potentially misuse the license by offering access to PLANKA while charging clients for other services, thereby circumventing the intended restrictions.

[meltyshev]

"operating PLANKA as a hosted service for any commercial gain whatsoever is prohibited" could be interpreted as a company hosting PLANKA for internal employee use and if that company is doing anything commercial, then they can't use PLANKA.

If you wanted to say "Anyone earning money from their Server should not use Planka in any capacity even if it one person using it", then your license works and nobody should touch PLANKA except for very limited home use.

If you wanted to say "Don't offer PLANKA as a SaaS Product but you can use it for internal company use etc.", then your license needs clearer terms.

You're right - this sentence can be interpreted differently. We're going to add a clarification, so it should be:

"Sharing accounts/credentials with third parties for business purposes or operating PLANKA as a hosted service for third parties for any commercial gain whatsoever is prohibited."

[seamon67]

@meltyshev I would direct you to Outline's BSL License which I think what you guys are trying to create. Theirs is pretty straightforward and removes any confusion whatsoever.

https://github.com/outline/outline/blob/main/LICENSE

[meltyshev]

@meltyshev I would direct you to Outline's BSL License which I think what you guys are trying to create. Theirs is pretty straightforward and removes any confusion whatsoever.

https://github.com/outline/outline/blob/main/LICENSE

Thanks, we'll check it out :)

[seamon67]

@meltyshev I went through the new license and it looks mostly except one small thing. Would it be possible for you guys to do one small modification. In this clause,

"Sharing accounts/credentials with third parties for business purposes or operating PLANKA as a hosted service for third parties for any commercial gain whatsoever is prohibited. Commercial gain includes any form of payment, advertising revenue, data monetization, or indirect commercial benefit or business advantage."

Would it be possible for you to change the first line to

"Sharing accounts/credentials with third parties (other than your employees or contractors) for business purposes"

This would make your license at par with Outline's BSL license.