The company Elasticsearch has released version 7.14.0 of elasticsearch-py, the official client library for the Python language, containing a change that blocks the ability to connect to servers that use a non-original commercial version of the Elasticsearch platform. The client library will now throw an error if a product claiming to be 'Elasticsearch' is used on the other side in the 'X-Elastic-Product' header for new releases, or if the tagline and build_flavor fields are not passed for older versions.
The elasticsearch-py library continues to be provided under the Apache 2.0 license, but its functionality is now limited to connecting to commercial Elasticsearch products only. According to Amazon, the blocking affects not only forks of Open Distro for Elasticsearch and OpenSearch but also solutions based on open versions of Elasticsearch. Similar changes are expected to be included in the client libraries for JavaScript and Hadoop.
Elasticsearch's actions are a consequence of a conflict with cloud providers who offer Elasticsearch as a cloud service but do not purchase the commercial version of the product. Elasticsearch is unhappy that unrelated cloud providers are benefiting while reselling ready-made open solutions, leaving the original developers with nothing.
Initially, Elasticsearch attempted to change the situation by moving the platform to a non-free SSPL (Server Side Public License) and stopping the publication of changes under the old Apache 2.0 license. The SSPL has been deemed by the OSI (Open Source Initiative) as not meeting Open Source criteria due to its discriminatory requirements. Although the SSPL is based on AGPLv3, the text includes additional requirements for providing under the SSPL not only the application's code but also the source texts of all components involved in providing the cloud service.
However, this step only exacerbated the situation, and through the collaborative efforts of Amazon, Red Hat, SAP, Capital One, and Logz.io, a fork of OpenSearch was created, positioned as a fully-fledged open solution developed with community involvement. OpenSearch was deemed ready for use in production systems and capable of replacing the search, analysis, and data storage platform Elasticsearch, as well as the web interface Kibana, including providing alternatives to components of the commercial Elasticsearch edition.
Elasticsearch escalated the conflict and decided to complicate the lives of fork users by tying them to its products, taking advantage of the fact that the client libraries remained under its control (the library license remained open, and the OpenSearch fork continued to use them to ensure compatibility and ease the transition for users).
In response to the actions of Elasticsearch, Amazon announced that the OpenSearch project would begin developing forks of 12 existing client libraries and would offer a solution for migrating client systems to them. Until the forks are published, users are recommended to hold off on transitioning to new releases of the client libraries, and in the case of an update installation, to revert to the previous version.
Source: opennet.ru
