[jayofdoom]

Honestly, from my perspective the problem is more the timing. If MongoDB had always been licensed this way, companies could make informed decisions about what product to use. Instead, you pulled a license bait and switch -- attracted people with a free-as-in-freedom license, then switched it for one that was less free after adoption picked up. That's not behavior I'd personally support as someone who has a career because of free software, and I wouldn't support it professionally because of the immense risk a company takes on when adopting a piece of software for long-term use -- like a DB.

[karmakaze]

As you may know there are different senses of 'free' at work here. How you're using it is as 'freedom to use'. The other is 'freedom of the source code information' which is to say that derivative works must also be released into the open. Open-source now has these two competing views. I would complain if software that was MIT licensed switched to a GPL one as it's switching camps. I would complain less if a GPL one switched to AGPL. I agree that it's best to choose the license that matches your beliefs from the start. We must also accept that a change in license is a distinct possibility and that we are free to fork.