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RMON licensing

RMON uses a source-available licensing model designed to keep self-hosting broadly available while reserving hosted/managed RMON services for commercial licensing.

Community license

Starting with the 1.4.0 release line, the RMON source distribution is offered under the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2), SPDX identifier Elastic-2.0.

The canonical ELv2 text is published by Elastic at: https://www.elastic.co/licensing/elastic-license

An SPDX reference is available at: https://spdx.org/licenses/Elastic-2.0.html

ELv2 is source-available, but it is not an OSI-approved Open Source license.

Typical permitted uses

Subject to the complete ELv2 terms, typical permitted uses include:

  • running RMON internally in your own organization;
  • modifying RMON for your own internal use;
  • evaluating, testing, and developing against RMON;
  • redistributing RMON subject to ELv2 requirements;
  • a consultant installing or operating RMON for a customer where the customer is using it internally and the consultant is not offering RMON itself as a hosted product to multiple third parties.

When a commercial license is required

A separate commercial agreement is required when you want rights that are not granted by ELv2. The primary example is offering RMON, or a service that exposes a substantial set of RMON features or functionality, to third parties as a hosted or managed service.

Examples include:

  • RMON-as-a-Service;
  • a hosted monitoring product that substantially exposes the RMON UI, APIs, monitoring checks, or feature set to customers;
  • a managed multi-tenant RMON offering;
  • a white-label hosted RMON service;
  • another hosted or managed offering where commercial rights beyond ELv2 are needed.

A commercial license may also be used for negotiated OEM, redistribution, branding, support, indemnity, warranty, or other enterprise rights.

See COMMERCIAL_LICENSE.md for the commercial licensing process.

What is not automatically a hosted RMON service

Using RMON as an internal component of a larger service does not by itself mean that the larger service is prohibited. The controlling terms are the ELv2 terms, including whether third-party users are given access to a substantial set of RMON features or functionality.

When a proposed deployment is close to that boundary, obtain written licensing confirmation before launching the service.

Historical releases

RMON versions and copies distributed before this licensing change remain subject to the terms that accompanied those copies. This change does not revoke previously granted rights or retroactively apply ELv2 to earlier copies.

Before this change, the repository's LICENSE contained the Apache License 2.0 text with an additional clause restricting modification and distribution for commercial purposes without the author's consent. The exact previous text is preserved in licenses/legacy/LICENSE-before-1.4.0.txt for historical reference. It is not an alternative license for the current source distribution.

Consult the license and notices shipped with the particular historical copy; the transition does not relabel those terms as MIT or unmodified Apache 2.0.

Contributions

New contributions are accepted only under the contributor terms in CLA.md. Those terms are intended to ensure that RMON can continue to be published under ELv2 while also being offered under separate commercial terms.

Contributors retain ownership of their contributions but grant the project the rights described in the CLA, including the rights needed for sublicensing and commercial licensing.

Third-party dependencies

Third-party dependencies and vendored components retain their own licenses. Nothing in RMON's licensing files changes the license of third-party software.

Trademarks

A software license does not automatically grant rights to project names, logos, service marks, or other trademarks except to the extent required by applicable law or expressly stated in a separate agreement.

Questions and commercial licensing

For a proposed SaaS, hosted, managed, OEM, white-label, or other commercial use, contact the RMON copyright holder through the project repository before launching the offering.

A signed commercial agreement should identify the licensor and licensee by legal name and should state the exact rights granted, fees, term, support (if any), liability terms, governing law, and termination terms.