HashiCorp: OpenTofu was not respecting the terms of its BSL license(twitter.com)
twitter.com
HashiCorp: OpenTofu was not respecting the terms of its BSL license
https://twitter.com/OpenTofuOrg/status/1776398008558493991
12 comments
I've reviewed the pull requests in question and this is just a bunch of FUD on behalf of Hashicorp.
The OpenTofu process puts a lot of effort into keeping code clean. To quote one of the project developers on their review process:
> The team employs this process in reverse. Implementing a functionality similar to one introduced in the BSL code, one individual can be designated as referee, look at the BSL code and ensure there’s no foul play in our MPL code. This individual cannot work on this feature/fix ever again.
Sometimes similar functionality is going to have similar implimentation, but that doesn't mean it was copied. Years ago I wrote a library called JShrink as a way to get around the weird JSMin license. I went back to first principles, literally grabbing a copy of the ECMA documentation to see how it handled tokenization. I then built my library. Someone pointed out that there were similarities between JSMin and JShrink, but it turns out that if two authors try to build the same thing with the same requirements (especially when talking about a relatively small piece of code) then of course there will be similarities.
In this case they're talking about an extension to an existing feature, one which really only resulted in a few lines of additional code. The idea that this was "stolen" is ridiculous, especially when you can see in the pull request how the functionality was developed.
The OpenTofu process puts a lot of effort into keeping code clean. To quote one of the project developers on their review process:
> The team employs this process in reverse. Implementing a functionality similar to one introduced in the BSL code, one individual can be designated as referee, look at the BSL code and ensure there’s no foul play in our MPL code. This individual cannot work on this feature/fix ever again.
Sometimes similar functionality is going to have similar implimentation, but that doesn't mean it was copied. Years ago I wrote a library called JShrink as a way to get around the weird JSMin license. I went back to first principles, literally grabbing a copy of the ECMA documentation to see how it handled tokenization. I then built my library. Someone pointed out that there were similarities between JSMin and JShrink, but it turns out that if two authors try to build the same thing with the same requirements (especially when talking about a relatively small piece of code) then of course there will be similarities.
In this case they're talking about an extension to an existing feature, one which really only resulted in a few lines of additional code. The idea that this was "stolen" is ridiculous, especially when you can see in the pull request how the functionality was developed.
This headline doesn’t really match the tweet. A better one might be “OpenTufu refutes Hashicorp claims”
Can you read the refutation at all? If so, would you mind pasting it here so us without a Twitter account can also read it?
“OpenTofu Project was recently made aware of a letter by HashiCorp’s lawyers, alleging that OpenTofu was not respecting the terms of its BSL license governing its Terraform codebase.
OpenTofu vehemently disagrees with any suggestion that it misappropriated, mis-sourced, or otherwise misused HashiCorp’s BSL code.
Indeed, it seems that HashiCorp may be conflating code that it had previously been open-sourced under the MPL and more recently developed code it published under the BSL.
OpenTofu’s maintainers have investigated this matter, and intends to issue a written response providing a more detailed explanation of its position in the coming days.”
OpenTofu vehemently disagrees with any suggestion that it misappropriated, mis-sourced, or otherwise misused HashiCorp’s BSL code.
Indeed, it seems that HashiCorp may be conflating code that it had previously been open-sourced under the MPL and more recently developed code it published under the BSL.
OpenTofu’s maintainers have investigated this matter, and intends to issue a written response providing a more detailed explanation of its position in the coming days.”
Here dies hashicorp.
Is this a lone tweet or a thread? Without a Twitter account I can't see anything except the one tweet.
It's a thread:
OpenTofu Project was recently made aware of a letter by HashiCorp’s lawyers, alleging that OpenTofu was not respecting the terms of its BSL license governing its Terraform codebase.
OpenTofu vehemently disagrees with any suggestion that it misappropriated, mis-sourced, or otherwise misused HashiCorp’s BSL code.
Indeed, it seems that HashiCorp may be conflating code that it had previously been open-sourced under the MPL and more recently developed code it published under the BSL.
OpenTofu’s maintainers have investigated this matter, and intends to issue a written response providing a more detailed explanation of its position in the coming days.
OpenTofu Project was recently made aware of a letter by HashiCorp’s lawyers, alleging that OpenTofu was not respecting the terms of its BSL license governing its Terraform codebase.
OpenTofu vehemently disagrees with any suggestion that it misappropriated, mis-sourced, or otherwise misused HashiCorp’s BSL code.
Indeed, it seems that HashiCorp may be conflating code that it had previously been open-sourced under the MPL and more recently developed code it published under the BSL.
OpenTofu’s maintainers have investigated this matter, and intends to issue a written response providing a more detailed explanation of its position in the coming days.
If this is happening I hope it's actually legitimate and not the big corp throwing its weight around. Certainly feels like money matters more than being right in cases like that.
If they bothered changing to closed-source, they have to put in some effort to make it stick. This move is not surprising. I don't think there is any real penalty for sending this letter if they are wrong anyway, other than more reputation loss with people who already switched to OpenTofu.
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[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39919725