I’ve written about HashiCorp before. They have some very nice infrastructure-as-code (IAC) tools that have many users around the world. These tools used to be open source, but that has now changed.

Instead of following the Mozilla Public License v2.0, they are moving to the Business Source License (BUSL). It’s sort of of open sourcish but has made plenty of people mad.

I can see the point if you have contributed to a project and a company takes the code away and puts it into a less open license. Plus, the weird restrictions make it against the rules to use the code in a way that is “competitive with HashiCorp’s products” which seems pretty broad. Interestingly, the code reverts to a full FOSS license after a HashiCorp specified Change Date. Which means that you eventually have all of the new versions released as FOSS, I suppose.

It’s interesting to see how many of these formerly “Open Source” companies have turned away from it once they take investor money. I’m sure we will see more of this as the model evolves.