HashiCorp Abandons Open Source for Business Source License
thenewstack.io
Like many other companies, HashiCorp has dropped the open source approach that gave its products their start for the source-available Business Source License (BSL).
  • HashiCorp is moving its products previously licensed as Open Source away from it to Business Source License (BSL) moving forward
  • Terraform is a popular Infrastructure as Code tool used for provisioning cloud resources like AWS, Azure among others
  • Terraform version 1.5.5 and earlier are still open source
  • there is a push for a community maintained open source fork if this decision is not reversed, OpenTF

Gruntwork response on the problem with BSL

  • NaNEnglish
    4•10 months ago

    I’m not as familiar with MPLv2 but I don’t think they can with contributions to the fork. Since those contributions won’t be part of the original “we own all your work” agreement they couldn’t simply close source those contributions.

    • @jarfil@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1•10 months ago

      From the BSL FAQ:

      Q: I have written a code patch to a BSL project and would like the BSL vendor to maintain the code as part of the BSL project. How do I contribute it?

      A: License your code using the “new BSD” license or dedicate it to the public domain. Code contributions under “new BSD” is compatible with BSL. See BSD on Wikipedia.

      That would seem to rule out the MPLv2.

      • NaNEnglish
        2•10 months ago

        That is for continuing contributions to the commercial project, the fork should be using the old license not the BSL.

        If HashiCorp is unwilling to switch Terraform back to an open source license, we propose to fork the legacy MPL-licensed Terraform

        The question was if HashiCorp could take contributions to the fork and put them into their commercial product.

        • @jarfil@beehaw.orgEnglish
          1•10 months ago

          That means HashiCorp could only take contributions licensed under the BSD or public domain, or under a CLA. The fork would be none of those.