Why did HashiCorp adopt the Business Source License?

On August 10th, 2023, HashiCorp announced its adoption of the Business Source License (BSL) to prevent competitors from forking its software and reselling it as proprietary services, while allowing regular users and open-source projects to continue using and modifying the software freely. The BSL, first introduced by MariaDB in 2016 and also used by companies like CockroachDB and Sentry, includes a four-year time limit for HashiCorp's releases, after which the software reverts to the MPL 2.0 license. HashiCorp's CTO, Armon Dadgar, explained that the change aims to protect the company's investment in open-source software development from vendors who compete without contributing back. Despite initial backlash, similar license changes by companies like MongoDB and Elastic have not hindered their growth, suggesting the trend is likely to continue.