Why Some Companies Are Reversing Course on Open Source Licenses
Several companies have moved popular projects away from fully open licenses. Here's the actual reason behind the pattern.
Several companies behind popular open source projects have shifted to more restrictive licenses in recent years, most commonly citing large cloud providers offering their software as a paid service without contributing back to its development.
The specific complaint driving this
The concern centers on large companies taking a popular open source project, running it as a profitable managed service, and competing directly with the original creators, who bear the ongoing cost of developing and maintaining the software.
Why this remains controversial
Critics argue these license changes undermine the basic promises of open source and unfairly restrict smaller companies who were never the actual target of the complaint, making this one of the more contentious ongoing debates within the open source community.