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unresolved source might be the building cube of the modern computer software stack , but company build businesses off the back of open source softwareface a repeated strugglebetween keep their community glad and ensure that third political party do n’t shout the permission afforded by the license .
Many companies have launched with lofty open generator ambitions , only to duck for cover once the realities of the commercial world tally home . It ’s all about protecting their bottom note , especially with investors ( public or private ) to appease .
But it can be difficult keeping lozenge on all these changes , while also distinguishing those that have abandoned receptive source completely and those that have sought sanctuary behind a less permissive ( but still open root ) license ( as thelikes of ElementandGrafana have donein the retiring few year ) .
As such , TechCrunch has compose a timeline of opened reservoir ship’s company that have changed course over the past decade .
Movable Type (2013)
Movable Typecreated an open root reading ( called MTOS ) of its WWW publication softwarein 2007under a “ copyleft”GPLopen source licence , a move that positioned it more closely to WordPress . Such licensesafford certain freedoms , but condition that all derivative work be let go under a like license . At any charge per unit , this move lasted until 2013 , at which spot Movable Type’sthen ownersditched the candid reference mathematical product , opining that it “ ache the adoption ” of the commercial-grade versions .
“ The biotic community has not grown because of MTOS , nor have we seen download numbers that are any greater than our give version of Movable Type , so at this gunpoint it does not make any economical sentiency to retain to maintain and distribute something that is getting very little use , ” the companywrote at the clock time .
SugarCRM (2014)
Founded initially in 2004 , client family relationship direction ( CRM ) software makerSugarCRMannounced in2014that it would no longer supply an open origin “ residential district variant , ” noting that its two core markets — developers and first - sentence CRM users seeking a tinny solution — were not effectively being served by the product .
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The company did proceed to confirm the last translation ( v6.5 ) of the candid source incarnation for four more years , before pull the plugin 2018 .
Redis (2018)
Redis , creators of the popular in - memory database memory , has been transition away from its open germ roots since 2018 , when it go its “ Redis Modules ” ( for instance RediSearch ) from an open sourceAGPLlicense to Apache 2.0 with a “ Commons Clause ” addendum ( i.e. commercial-grade restrictions ) . Thefollowing yr , Redis replaced the Commons Clause with its own Redis Source Available License ( RSAL ) that promised to maintain some exemption , but with notable restrictions interrelate to contend database services — such as those provide by companies such as AWS .
In many ways , this was a bellwether of what was to occur , as other companies would later cite the “ Amazon problem ” as their reason for flip their license up . Earlier this year , Redis ’ passage to the earth of proprietary was complete , when it announcedthat its centre software would be shifting from aBSD 3 - Clauselicense to a twofold - license setup — RSAL or server side public permit ( SSPL ) .
MongoDB (2018)
In 2018,database company MongoDBmoved awayfrom an open sourceAGPL license to SSPL . The ground ? Yup : to foreclose cloud hyperscalers such as AWS from sell their own variation of the service without lend back .
Confluent (2018)
The “ class that was ” for open source license switching conclude withConfluent , a party that sells enterprise - grade tools and service around Apache Kafka , switchingsome of the element of its core platform from Apache 2.0 to a proprietaryConfluent Community License .
This license specify a notable exclusion , one that forbids any competing inspection and repair from offering Confluent ’s wares “ as - a - overhaul . ”
Cockroach Labs (2019)
Cockroach Labs , Jehovah of the eponymousdistributed SQL database known as CockroachDB , has continued to shake up its licensing ethos .
In 2019 , the company ’s foundersannouncedthat they were moving CockroachDB from the permissive Apache 2.0 license to the Business Source License ( BUSL ) . Again , cloud hyperscalers such as AWS were the driving force behind the modification .
“ We ’re witnessing the rise of highly integrated providers take advantage of their alone position to proffer ‘ as - a - inspection and repair ’ versions of OSS [ opened source package ] product , and offer a superior exploiter experience as a consequence of their integrations , ” the founders wrote at the time .
Back in August , Cockroach Labs denote yet another variety : It would consolidateits ego - host intersection under a individual endeavour license , as a manner to encourage magnanimous businesses to pay for the feature of speech they really need .
Sentry (2019)
Sentry , the$3 billion companybehind theapp performance monitoring platformof the same name , was once available under a permissiveBSD 3 - Clause assailable source license . But in 2019 , the companymoved toBUSL , with co - founder and CTO David Cramer saying this was to foresee “ funded business enterprise plagiarizing or copying our work to directly vie with Sentry . ”
Last year , Sentrylaunched its very ownFunctional Source License ( FSL ) , which is like to BUSL but a little unsubdivided . And as of this year , Sentry is putting its free weight behinda novel licensing paradigmdubbed “ fair source , ” which , as TechCrunch report at the time , is “ design to bridge the capable and proprietary worlds , replete with new definition , terminology , and governance model . ”
Elastic (2021)
It was several yearsin the making , butElastic — creator of enterprise lookup engineElasticsearchand theKibanavisualization splasher — wentproprietaryin 2021 . It was a familiar story , one that can be traced back to 2015 when AWSlaunched its ownmanaged Elasticsearch Robert William Service .
However , flexible stands somewhat alone as one of the only companies to move away from undecided source , and then move back . Back in August , Elastic announcedit would be adoptingan AGPL license — dissimilar to the Apache 2.0 licence it used prior to 2021 , but open origin notwithstanding .
HashiCorp (2023)
HashiCorpalso abandon the undecided source ship last class , announcingthat it was switching its pop “ base as code ” toolTerraformfrom a copyleft open origin license to BUSL .
The conversant reasonableness was to prevent certain vendors from monetise Terraform without contribute anything back to the project .
An assailable beginning fork call OpenTofu waslaunched in the first place this yearby third party , and as a notable apart , IBM snapped up HashiCorpfor $ 6.4 billion .
Snowplow (2024)
Snowplow , aVC - support platformthat helps ship’s company collect behavioural data for AI software , this yearswitched froman undetermined rootage Apache 2.0 permit to theSnowplow Limited Use License Agreement .
The reason , the ship’s company sound out , was that it needs to fund its “ exciting engineering roadmap , ” and thus everyone run its software in production should “ compensate for the note value they find in return . ” The newfangled license also explicitly prevent users from create a competitive mathematical product built on top of Snowplow .
