📜 LICENSE CLASS: 📖 SOURCE-AVAILABLE
Executive Summary: What is it?
The Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2) is a non-copyleft "Source Available" license created by Elastic (the company behind Elasticsearch). It is NOT an Open Source license by the OSI definition. It was designed to protect software creators from "SaaS-jacking" by large cloud providers : the software is free to use, except to provide it to others as a hosted or managed service.
CFO / Business Impact: What does it cost/risk?
Safe for Internal Ops. ELv2 charges no license fee. You can use it, modify it, and run it for your own business without cost. The SaaS Restriction: You cannot host the software as a managed service for third parties. If you are an MSP or cloud provider, you cannot sell the software as a hosted service.
Technical Reality: How does it work?
The ELv2 is intentionally simple, consisting of only three primary restrictions:
- No Notice Removal: You cannot alter, remove, or obscure the licensor's licensing, copyright, or other notices.
- No SaaS Provisioning: You cannot provide the software to third parties as a hosted or managed service that gives users access to any substantial set of its features or functionality.
- No Circumvention: You cannot remove or bypass license keys or protection mechanisms. Unlike AGPL, it does not require you to open-source your modifications.