HashiCorp, a software provider focused on cloud infrastructure , announced that they have decided to modify the open source agreement of their core products - future versions will adopt BSL (Business Source License) .
HashiCorp stated in the announcement that initially they chose to open source the product. After more than ten years of development, a large community of users, contributors, partners, and customers has been formed. They actively participate in and benefit from the work of HashiCorp products. They invest tens of millions of dollars in the research and development of open source products every year, and continue to support and sponsor a vibrant user community through commercial activities.
But at the same time, there are many vendors who simply use OSS to achieve their own business goals without providing any contribution. HashiCorp believes that this is not in line with the spirit of open source, and that the commercial open source model needs to evolve so that the ecosystem can continue to provide open, free software. Open source lowers the barriers to entry for replicating innovations and selling them through existing distribution channels, leading many suppliers to increasingly turn to "closed source."
Even so, HashiCorp still wants to stick to the original intention of "open source". Based on this, they decided to modify the open source agreement. Future versions of all HashiCorp products will be changed from Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPL 2.0) to Business Source License (BSL, also known as BUSL) v1.1 .
The HashiCorp API, SDK, and almost all other libraries continue to use MPL 2.0.
For projects adopting BSL 1.1, the code will still be open (source-available), but only under certain conditions, copying, modification, redistribution, non-commercial use, and commercial use are allowed -mainly adding restrictions on commercial use.