Terrible License or am I mis-understanding?

[cadorn]

Why do you restrict use of your software like this:

2. PubNub grants you a limited, worldwide, perpetual, revocable (per Section 4), right to use, display, perform, modify and distribute the source and object code of the Licensed Software solely to integrate into (a) PubNub products and services or (b) any other non-commercial framework or service.

What is the benefit to you?

[stephenlb]

Hi! Good question.

[stephenlb]

Reviewing with team for a response.

[stephenlb]

The proprietary license is inspired by MIT with one specific enhancement - the ability for anyone to use the library with PubNub or any open source framework, but not commercial offerings.

[cadorn]

A restriction is not an enhancement in the realm of Open Source and I reject that this license is an inspired enhancement of the MIT license. It is a restrictive commercial license.

You are intentionally and purposefully locking users into your commercial offering under the guise of Open Source and your reasoning confirms that. You are making it harder for your customers to switch to alternatives if your customers for some reason start rejecting your company. I believe this will affect exactly the opposite of what you are trying to achieve in the long-term.

I believe you will be much better served authoring an Open Source library that provides a foundation for users to leverage any service provider including yours. This will put you in a position of leadership and good-will with your customers and as long as your service stays competitive your customers will stay and praise you for leading a complexity battle for them.