What limits do the Docker CE EULA impose on its commercial use?

Docker Engine General
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I would appreciate some clarity on the limits the Docker CE EULA impose on its use in commercial products?

The Docker CE for Windows EULA states the following:

DOCKER FOR WINDOWS 18.03.1-ce-win65 END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

…

1.1. Licensed Software. Subject to Customer’s compliance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Docker hereby grants Customer a perpetual, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sub-licensable license to download, install and use the Licensed Software on a single computer, solely in object code format, and solely for Customer’s internal business purposes.

I’m particularly unsure about:

  1. “on a single computer”: if I have multiple computers, is a separate Docker CE instance on each of them acceptable? so is this EULA per Docker CE instance?
  2. “solely for Customer’s internal business purposes”: what exactly is meant by “internal”? does it exclude all undertakings where a business make use of Docker CE in its commercial product offerings?

The online EULA version seems to leave the “single computer” part out but the rest still apply: Docker Subscription Service Agreement | Docker

1 Like
2

Hi

Did you ever find an answer to this question?

3

hi @chrjensen

nope, not specifically for the EULA and that bothering “… and use the Licensed Software solely for your internal use” sentence that still reads like that in the online docker EULA version.

yet like all other forums point out, docker-ce is Apache licensed for both cli and engine: https://github.com/docker/docker-ce/blob/master/components/cli/LICENSE
https://github.com/docker/docker-ce/blob/master/components/engine/LICENSE

it’s just that “internal” EULA part I really would like clarified.

4

Hello @theunsa,

I’m also struggling at this licensing issue, it was so ambiguous and our IT guys told us the legal case of JDK. They feed, they hook and they *****: of course this kinds of terms is a risk and it is a resistance for using Docker, unless they reply for this, did you have alternate solution for this kinds of virtualization utility?

5

Does this mean Docker Desktop (Windows) CE cannot be used on developer machines for testing (local) client projects?

An example use case is using docker-compose for setting a local development environment.

Does this Require Enterprise license when the projects are for client work?