[CableNinja]

Its almost like being open allows people to choose what they do with your stuff, and whether or not they decide to contribute back is part of that choice. Crazy right?

Hashicorp has really done a number. They didnt footgun themselves, they shot both their legs off in one go. They displaced a community, who, at least in some part, were contributing back, AND they destroyed trust in their company, thus trust with the rest of their products. The license change made me really start questioning the continued use of their other tools; i already have issues with their toolset in general (various things depending on the tool).

Contributors to (F)OSS projects is always a very low percentage of the userbase, in fact statistically outside of small projects where the developer and their friend are the only one using it, as a project gains popularity there will be fewer contributors (by percentage). And on that note, if you (not you specifically, in this case im saying you as in Hashicorp) dont like that people dont contribute back to OSS projects, then dont release open software, or make a nasty license that says you can only use the software if you make meaningful contributions back to the software within a reasonable time. I bet you can guess the result; no one uses your software. Being a(n) (F)OSS project means more than just gaining contributors and a community. Those are side effects of being open source, not a (valid) reason to make an oss project to start. Its not only giving the world a source to work their own things from and learn from, its also providing the world a tool (most often for free) that doesnt necessarily rely on some blackbox corporation pinky swearing its not stealing data or turning around and doing something nasty later