What's the `ee` folder in open-source projects?
In this article, we analyse the ee folder found in open-source projects. This is closely linked to the open-source licensing. There’s a difference between Open source and source code available. You will find a better explanation in this article.
Open-source/source code available project licenses must be adhered to. An open-source/source code available project’s license is decided by the original author/team who built their project. It takes a lot of time and efforts to produce these open-source projects, hence you must respect the licensing in place.
I am going to provide a couple of projects that contain ee folder that has a different license compared to the rest of the other parts of those projects.
Enterprise Edition
ee stands for Enterprise Edition.
ee folder in Cal.com
Cal.com is a great example for this. In api/v2/ee folder, you will find the below content:
“
# Enterprise Edition of API
Welcome to the Enterprise Edition (“/ee”) of the Cal.com API.
Our philosophy is simple, all “Singleplayer APIs” are open-source under AGPLv3.
All “Multiplayer APIs” are under a commercial license.
The [/ee](https://github.com/calcom/cal.com/tree/main/apps/api/v2/ee) subfolder is the place
for all the Enterprise Edition features from our [hosted](https://cal.com/pricing) plan
and enterprise-grade features for [Enterprise](https://cal.com/enterprise) such as SSO,
SAML, OIDC, SCIM, SIEM and much more or [Platform](https://cal.com/platform) plan to build
a marketplace.
> ❗ WARNING: This repository is copyrighted (unlike our [main repo](https://github.com/calcom/cal.com)).
You are not allowed to use this code to host your own version of app.cal.com without obtaining a
proper [license](https://console.cal.com/) first❗
“
You are not allowed to use this code to host your own version of app.cal.com without obtaining a proper [license](https://console.cal.com/) first❗
You have to tread carefully when you see such type of warnings, the right thing to do here would be to just contact cal.com if you decide to host your own version.
ee folder in Documenso
I will provide some excerpts found in packages/ee/LICENSE regaridng ee licensing. Be sure to check that LICENSE.
“
The Documenso Commercial License (the “Commercial License”)
Copyright © 2023 Documenso, Inc
This software and associated documentation files (the “Software”) may only be
used in production, if you (and any entity that you represent) have agreed to,
and are in compliance with, an agreement governing
the use of the Software, as mutually agreed by you and Documenso, Inc (“Documenso”),
and otherwise have a valid Documenso Enterprise Edition subscription (“Commercial Subscription”).
This Commercial License applies only to the part of this Software that is not distributed under
the AGPLv3 license.
“
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