Open Source is beautiful because it recognizes that the software itself can be an infinite supply of valuable goods, that can benefit everyone in whatever way they need it to. That includes monetarily.

When we say it's okay for Elastic to close the source, it *is* okay legally. They have every right. Depending on your lens, they may even have a moral right or obligation to do it. But if your lens is a thriving elasticsearch community, there is no way to justify it.

The mere existence of a company valued at $14.97B tells you that they absolutely, positively, 100% did not *have* to do this. They did it because they believed the "wrong" that was other people making money on the software if it meant they didn't was worse.

That's it. That's the whole story. Wrap it up how you like, dress it up with heroes and villains. End of the day, they closed it because they cared more about the injustice that was someone else making money on the software they primarily created.

And they had *already* reaped the $14.98B market cap worth of benefit from being the de-facto standard search software, in large part because: it was open source, and because other vendors (AMA-FUCKING-ZON) agreed and supported it.

In doing it, they hurt a bunch of people who contributed over the years, and many much smaller businesses who trusted their promises that Elasticsearch and Kibana would stay apache 2, which meant they could be safely integrated into their own products and platforms ...

thus further cementing it as the standard. Whatever harm they saw in the change paled in comparison to the harm they believed was being done to them. That entire community will shift to the fork, because they must.

That they *can* is the why the more I looked, and the more I read, and the more I thought about it - there can be no truly open community around software *without* freedom zero. It truly is the bedrock of the entire mechanism of trust and caring that can be OSS at its finest.

That the community has it is vital. That Elastic no longer things you are entitled to it tells you everything you need to know about how they felt about their community. They were happy to have you, as long as you were in the funnel .

Want to improve your own life with it? Make money off it? Not interested.