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Server Side Public License, v 1


Also known as SSPL, SSPL-1.0, Server Side Public License, Server Side Public License 1.0.

Commercial use
allowed
Share alike
required
Attribution
required (keep the copyright and license notices)

Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSPL-1.0

Permissions

  • Charge distribution fee from the text The text says: "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee." Charging a fee for the act of providing a copy of the work to someone else.
  • Commercial use from the text The text says: "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee." Using the work to generate income, directly or indirectly, for example by selling it or by using it in advertising.
  • Derivative works from the text Distributing an adaptation of the work and making it available to the public.
  • Derive from the text Creating a new work from the work, such as a translation, adaptation or arrangement of it or of a part of it.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Modification notice from the text Marking a changed work as changed, saying how it differs from the original and keeping earlier notices of change.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text The text says: "If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License." Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Display from the text Showing the work to the public without making a copy the viewer keeps.
  • Distribute from the text The text says: "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee." Providing copies of the work to the public or to anyone else.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text The text says: "If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License." Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Modified works from the text Distributing a modified version of the work that does not amount to a new, derivative work.
  • Modify from the text Altering the work, for example by updating it, without creating a new work; an alteration that creates a new work is Derive.

    Duties

    • Attribution from the text Giving credit to the copyright holders or authors of the work, in the form the licensor asks for.
    • Modification notice from the text Marking a changed work as changed, saying how it differs from the original and keeping earlier notices of change.
    • Notice from the text Notice: keeping the license and copyright notices with every copy.
    • Source code from the text The text says: "If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License." Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Network use trigger from the text Making the work available over a network, deploying it or providing a service with it.

    Duties

    • Source code from the text The text says: "If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License." Providing access to the source code of the work with every copy distributed.
  • Patent grant from the text Granting a license under the patent claims that a contributor holds and that the contribution necessarily infringes.
  • Present from the text Performing the work in public, including by broadcast or other communication to the public.
  • Reproduce from the text The text says: "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee." Making copies of the work in any form.

Prohibitions

  • Add limitation from the text Not permitted: Add limitation. The text says: "You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the rights granted or affirmed under this License." Adding further limitations or restrictions to the license terms when passing the work on.
  • Apply technical protection measures from the text Not permitted: Apply technical protection measures. Applying technological measures that control access to the work or its use.
  • Change license from the text Not permitted: Change license. The text says: "This License gives no permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not invalidate such permission if you have separately received it." Replacing the license of the work, or of an adaptation, with another license, or changing its terms.
  • Sublicense from the text Not permitted: Sublicense. The text says: "Sublicensing is not allowed; section 10 makes it unnecessary." Granting a third party rights in the work under a license of the licensee's own, rather than passing on the original license.

License-wide duties

  • Share alike from the text The text says: "You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy." Adaptations have to be licensed under the same license or one the license names as compatible.

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

  • Promote by default rule (adopted) Using the name or trademarks of the licensor or of contributors to endorse or promote a product.

    This license says nothing about Promote, and the graph applies this reading in all jurisdictions it covers: it is not permitted unless the license permits it.

    A licence that says nothing about endorsement is read as not allowing it: the licence gives the licensee no right to use the licensor's name or marks in a way that states or implies that the licensor endorses the licensee or its product, while stating truthfully that a work is based on or uses the licensed work is a different act that this rule does not decide. A copyright licence grants rights in the work, and the right to use a name or a trademark is a separate right under trademark law and the protection of names, which a silent copyright licence does not pass on. Combining a licence that is silent about endorsement with one that permits it shows a conflict marked as coming from this rule.

    Basis Trademark and name rights are separate from copyright: Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 article 9 lets the proprietor of an EU trade mark prevent all third parties not having his consent from using the sign in the course of trade, and Directive (EU) 2015/2436 article 10, 15 U.S.C. 1114 and 1125(a), section 12 BGB and section 43 ABGB protect marks and names in the same way. The library's evidence is Creative Commons 4.0 section 2(b)(2): Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License. A copyright licence that is silent grants no right to use the licensor's name or marks to suggest endorsement (Worldwide)

Further terms

These are the things the license says about itself beyond the acts it permits, forbids and requires: when it ends, how long there is to put a breach right, which law governs it, and so on. A term that comes from the DALICC vocabulary links to its definition.

Patent license ends if you sue
Yes. Not a ban on suing: a patent claim over the work ends the patent license, or the whole license, as the text provides.
Cure period
30 days
Or later version option
No
Reciprocity scope
the whole of the work, and, where the functionality is offered as a service, the Service Source Code, which includes every program used to make the service available
Terminates on breach
Yes

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Accepting warranty or additional liability

you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee

Additional clauses

All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met.

Info

Target asset types
Software
Region / jurisdiction
Worldwide
Validity
Perpetual
Source
https://spdx.org/licenses/SSPL-1.0.html
Legal code
https://www.mongodb.com/licensing/server-side-public-license
This description is published under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher
MongoDB, Inc.
SPDX identifier
SSPL-1.0 on the SPDX license list
Version
1
DALICC identifier
SSPL-1.0

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSPL-1.0",
  "license-title": "Server Side Public License, v 1",
  "spdx-id": "SSPL-1.0",
  "attribution": "Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holder]",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSPL-1.0> .

RDF, JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSPL-1.0"
  }
}

HTML attribution

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSPL-1.0" rel="license">Server Side Public License, v 1</a>.</p>

This license asks for attribution, so the credit line is part of it.

Badge DALICC badge for Server Side Public License, v 1

Markdown

[![License: Server Side Public License, v 1](https://dalicc.net/license-library/SSPL-1.0/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/SSPL-1.0)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/SSPL-1.0"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/SSPL-1.0/badge.svg" alt="License: Server Side Public License, v 1"></a>

Review

Written from the license text by
Giray Havur
Written on
2026-09-22
Second review
not yet done
Record changed since this review
yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings
14 recorded, 11 applied to the record, 0 proposed

The record models the Server Side Public License, version 1. The text is the GNU General Public License version 3 with one section replaced: where the GPL asks for the source of the covered work, section 13 asks anyone who offers the functionality as a service for the Service Source Code, which reaches every program used to run that service. That is why the licence is not accepted as an open source licence, and the record says so by carrying the network trigger and the reciprocity scope the text states.

14 findings
  • info Rubric 1 spdx:licenseId applied

    File name, record identifier, SPDX identifier and IRI local name agree. cc:legalcode points at the publisher's own page and dct:source at the SPDX entry. dct:publisher is MongoDB, Inc., which the copyright line and section 14 name.

  • info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

    dcmitype:Software only, following AGPL-3.0, whose text this one is built on.

  • major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

    Section 2 affirms 'your unlimited permission to run the unmodified Program, subject to section 13', sections 4 to 6 permit conveying verbatim copies, modified sources and object code, and section 11 grants a patent licence. That gives odrl:reproduce, odrl:distribute, odrl:modify, odrl:derive, odrl:display, odrl:present, cc:DerivativeWorks, dalicc:ModifiedWorks, cc:CommercialUse, dalicc:chargeDistributionFee for 'You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey' and dalicc:patentGrant.

  • major Rubric 3 dalicc:networkUseTrigger applied

    dalicc:networkUseTrigger carries a cc:SourceCode duty for section 13: 'If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License.' CAL-1.0 uses the same term for the same kind of trigger. AGPL-3.0 does not carry it, which is a difference between the two records rather than between the two texts, and it is proposed below.

  • major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

    dalicc:ChangeLicense for section 5(c), 'This License gives no permission to license the work in any other way'. dalicc:sublicense for section 2, 'Sublicensing is not allowed; section 10 makes it unnecessary.' dalicc:addLimitation for section 10, 'You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the rights granted or affirmed under this License.' dalicc:applyTechnicalProtectionMeasures for section 3. dalicc:patentRetaliationTermination for the litigation sentence of section 10. dalicc:promote for section 7(d) and 7(e), which let a licensor limit the use of its names for publicity and decline to grant trademark rights, the same reading AGPL-3.0 takes.

  • minor Rubric 4 odrl:grantUse applied

    Section 10 says 'Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensors', which would ordinarily give odrl:grantUse. It is left out, because the dependency graph holds dalicc:sublicense owl:sameAs odrl:grantUse and section 2 forbids sublicensing, so asserting both would report a conflict. CAL-1.0 is modelled the same way for the same pair of sentences. The clause is quoted instead.

  • major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

    cc:ShareAlike is licence-wide for section 5(c), 'You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy', which is the whole-work copyleft shape. cc:Attribution, cc:Notice and cc:SourceCode hang on odrl:distribute, odrl:modify and odrl:derive, and dalicc:modificationNotice is added on the last two for section 5(a). The network-use trigger carries its own cc:SourceCode duty, because the source it asks for is wider than the source conveying asks for.

  • major Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer applied

    Sections 15 and 16 are separate, so each goes into the property that names it, and section 4's fee sentence is dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance, exactly as in AGPL-3.0. Fifteen further clauses are quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses, including both paragraphs of section 13 and the definition of Service Source Code.

  • major Rubric 7 dalicc:validityType applied

    dalicc:validityType is dalicc:perpetual for section 2, 'All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met.' dalicc:orLaterVersionOption is false, because this record models version 1 only, while section 14 lets a program opt into later versions; that sentence is quoted. dalicc:terminatesOnBreach is true for section 8 and dalicc:curePeriod is '30 days' for the first-time cure it offers. The text names no governing law.

  • gap Rubric 8 dalicc:sourcePublicationPeriod none

    Section 13 says the Service Source Code must be available 'via network download to everyone at no charge' but gives no period, so dalicc:sourcePublicationPeriod is left out rather than filled with a guess. The clause is quoted. Proposed term: dalicc:serviceSourceScope, an annotation for the set of programs a network-use trigger reaches, which here is wider than the covered work and has no counterpart in any other record.

  • info Rubric 9 record none

    The consistency check of app.services.composer, run against licensedata/dependencygraph/dg_default.ttl, returned no conflicts. The whole-work cc:ShareAlike duty sits beside a prohibited dalicc:ChangeLicense, which is the shape the check expects of a copyleft licence.

  • major Rubric 10 record none

    Against AGPL-3.0, which shares most of this text, the record adds dalicc:networkUseTrigger with a source duty, dalicc:reciprocityScope, dalicc:sublicense, dalicc:addLimitation, dalicc:applyTechnicalProtectionMeasures, dalicc:patentRetaliationTermination, odrl:display and odrl:present, and it carries a cure period. The clauses behind the statements AGPL-3.0 lacks are in both texts, so those are proposals for AGPL-3.0 rather than differences between the licences; the network trigger and the termination terms were applied to AGPL-3.0 on 2026-09-23 and the rest stay proposals.

  • minor Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

    dalicc:promote was prohibited and no sentence of this text supports it. The statement was the library's reading of a legal default, that a copyright licence which says nothing about endorsement grants no right to it, and it sat in 519 of 581 records as a house convention. That reading is now an adopted dalicc:DefaultRule of the core dependency graph, which supplies it to every licence that is silent about the action, so a compatibility check reaches the same answer and the record states only what the text states. Removed on 2026-09-23; see section 13 of docs/LICENSE_REVIEW.md.

  • minor Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance applied

    dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance held the whole sentence of Section 4, "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee." Its first half is the permission to charge for a copy, which the record states as dalicc:chargeDistributionFee, and not a warranty clause. The literal now quotes only the second half, "you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee".

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

  1. Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

    The changes since version 1 left endorsement to the default rule of the core dependency graph, recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on, corrected it against its text on 2026-09-24 and named the license the record itself is published under.

    14 changes
    • removed prohibition dalicc:promote

      Manual edit The endorsement prohibition rested on no sentence of the text; the default rule for endorsement now supplies it.

    • changed duty cc:ShareAlike

      was duty cc:ShareAlike

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy."

    • changed permission cc:CommercialUse

      was permission cc:CommercialUse

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee."

    • changed permission dalicc:chargeDistributionFee

      was permission dalicc:chargeDistributionFee

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee."

    • changed permission dalicc:networkUseTrigger with duties [cc:SourceCode]

      was permission dalicc:networkUseTrigger with duties [cc:SourceCode]

      Manual edit Its duty cc:SourceCode quotes "If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License."

    • changed permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice]

      was permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice]

      Manual edit Its duty cc:SourceCode quotes "If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License."

    • changed permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode]

      was permission odrl:distribute with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode]

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee." Its duty cc:SourceCode quotes "If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License."

    • changed permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice]

      was permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice]

      Manual edit Its duty cc:SourceCode quotes "If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License."

    • changed permission odrl:reproduce

      was permission odrl:reproduce

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee."

    • changed prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense

      was prohibition dalicc:ChangeLicense

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "This License gives no permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not invalidate such permission if you have separately received it."

    • changed prohibition dalicc:addLimitation

      was prohibition dalicc:addLimitation

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the rights granted or affirmed under this License."

    • changed prohibition dalicc:sublicense

      was prohibition dalicc:sublicense

      Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "Sublicensing is not allowed; section 10 makes it unnecessary."

    • changed dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance "you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee"

      was dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee."

      Manual edit The first half of the Section 4 sentence, "You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey", is the permission to charge for a copy, not a warranty clause.

    • added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>

      Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.

  2. Version 1

    Created from the license text on 2026-09-22 (Source-available licences and riders).

Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.