The Linux Foundation's 'OpenTofu' Project Denies HashiCorp's Allegations of Code Theft

The Linux Foundation-backed project OpenTofu 'has gotten legal pushback from HashiCorp,' according to a report — just seven months after forking OpenTofu's code from HashiCorp's IT deployment software Terraform:

On April 3, HashiCorp issued a strongly-worded Cease and Desist letter to OpenTofu, accusing that the project has 'repeatedly taken code HashiCorp provided only under the Business Software License (BSL) and used it in a manner that violates those license terms and HashiCorp's intellectual property rights.' It goes on to note that 'In at least some instances, OpenTofu has incorrectly re-labeled HashiCorp's code to make it appear as if it was made available by HashiCorp originally under a different license.' Last August, HashiCorp announced that it would be transitioning its software from the open source Mozilla Public License (MPL 2.0) to the Business Source License (BSL), a license that permits the source to be viewed, but not run in production environments without explicit approval by the license owner. HashiCorp gave OpenTofu until April 10 to remove any allegedly copied code from the OpenTofu repository, threatening litigation if the project fails to do so.

Others are also covering the fracas, including Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at DevOps.com:

OpenTofu replied, 'The OpenTofu team vehemently disagrees with any suggestion that it misappropriated, mis-sourced, or otherwise misused HashiCorp's BSL code. All such statements have zero basis in facts.' In addition, it said, HashiCorp's claims of copyright infringement are completely unsubstantiated. As for the code in question, OpenTofu claims it can clearly be shown to have been copied from older code under the Mozilla Public License (MPL) 2.0. 'HashiCorp seems to have copied the same code itself when they implemented their version of this feature. All of this is easily visible in our detailed SCO analysis, as well as their own comments.'

In a detailed source code origination (SCO) examination of the problematic source code, OpenTofu stated that HashiCorp was mistaken. 'We believe that this is just a case of a misunderstanding where the code came from.' OpenTofu maintains the code was originally licensed under the MPL, not the BSL. If so, then OpenTofu was perfectly within its right to use the code in its codebase...
[OpenTofu's lawyer] concluded, 'In the future, if you should have any concerns or questions about how source code in OpenTofu is developed, we would ask that you contact us first. Immediately issuing DMCA takedown notices and igniting salacious negative press articles is not the most helpful path to resolving concerns like this.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.