"Integration license consequences"

Hektor
Hektor New Altair Community Member
edited November 5 in Community Q&A
We would like to use RapidMiner API within our project, but we are not sure with the licensing.  The situation is that we have a STORM cluster where we have nodes responsible for text annotation. Each of these nodes runs an JVM application which uses  GATE Embedded for text preprocessing and Rapidminer for classification of text. The application running in this node can be open sourced; however the whole cluster must stay closed. Would such scenario be possible under the RapidMiner community edition?

Thanks,


Peter
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Answers

  • IngoRM
    IngoRM New Altair Community Member
    Hi Peter,

    thanks for asking - it's always better to be safe than sorry  ;)

    The Community Edition of RapidMiner is released under the AGPL which is a VERY strict open source license: there is basically no way around publishing any derivative work again under the AGPL and make it hence open source again. The AGPL, in contrast to the GPL, even closes the so-called web service gap which means that even web services / server including AGPL code have to be AGPL again AND that software using thosing web services / server have to be AGPL as well. This basically means that by including the Community Edition, there is no chance for your setup without having everything open source under the AGPL again.

    There are two solutions:
    • If the result of the classification is only used in-house, is not delivered and especially not sold to any third party, the Enterprise Edition of our RapidAnalytics server allows exactly this type of integration with closed-source software.
    • If the results should be delivered / sold as part of the closed source bundle to third parties, Rapid-I offers OEM licenses for our software product allowing you this type of integration.
    In general, if the results are not sold to third parties, the Enterprise Edition of RapidAnalytics is the best choice in my opinion. You can see where integration is allowed on the RapidAnalytics web page

    http://rapid-i.com/content/view/182/192/

    in the section "Editions and Prices" (look into the section "Integration").

    For both solutions, RapidAnalytics Enterprise as well as for the OEM license, you will have to contact our sales team via our web site or write to sales@rapid-i.com.

    Cheers,
    Ingo

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