HashiCorp announced Thursday that it is switching the license that governs the use of its open-source projects from the Mozilla Public License to the Business Source License (BSL), a license that does not meet the traditional definition of open source as described by the Open Source Initiative.
From what I'm reading, this appears to be a very reasonable move. I'm a big proponent of FOSS but, the vendors competing are really taking the piss and profiting off of others' work without supporting it. It's the same sort of parasitism that's being seen in relation to LLMs and other ML tech being used to rip off the labor of writers, artists, and programmers and cause them financial harm.
Full disclosure: I do work as a software engineer but in a less-vulnerable segment.
There are a few problems with this:
Very good points. Definitely disheartening to see this occurring as I'm finally pushing through the bureaucracy needed to make contributions to and release FOSS projects myself but, FOSS existed before the web and will keep going after it commercial interests have finished bleeding it dry for short-term gains.
The biggest problem I see is that you can suddenly become non-compliant just because Hashicorp decides to release a new service (i.e.they start competing with you, rather than the other way). It can be a huge risk for companies.