“The acquisition of Qualcomm does not change how user data is processed or how we apply our open source principles,” the Arduino blog states.
The Arduino blog did not discuss the company’s new terms regarding patents, which state:
The User will use the Site and the Platform in accordance with these Conditions and for the sole purpose of correctly using the Services. Specifically, the user agrees not to: … “use the Platform, Site or Services to identify or provide evidence to support any potential claim for patent infringement against Arduino, its affiliates, or any of Arduino’s or Arduino’s affiliates’ direct or indirect suppliers and/or customers.
“No open source company includes a provision in its terms of service that prohibits users from identifying potential patent issues. Why was this added and who asked for it?” Fried and Torrone said.
Arduino’s new terms include similar language around user-generated content that its ToS has used for years. The current terms state that users grant to Arduino:
non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, perpetual, irrevocable right, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law… right to use the content posted and/or updated on the Platform as well as to distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish and make publicly viewable all material, including software, libraries, textual content, images, videos, comments, text, audio, software, libraries or other data (collectively, “ Content”) that User posts, uploads or otherwise makes available to Arduino worldwide, by any means and for any purpose, including the use of any specified username or nickname in connection with the Content.
“The new language is still broad enough to republish, monetize and route user content to any future Qualcomm pipeline forever,” Torrone told Ars. He believes the new Arduino terms should have clarified Arduino’s intent, narrowed the scope of the term, or explained “why this needs to be irrevocable and transferable at the enterprise level.”
In its blog, Arduino said the new ToS “clarifies that content you choose to publish to the Arduino platform remains yours and can be used to enable features you have requested, such as cloud services and collaboration tools.”
As Qualcomm works to finalize its acquisition of Arduino, it appears the smartphone processor and modem provider still has work to do to convince manufacturers that Arduino’s open source and privacy principles will be respected. Although the Arduino IDE and its source code will remain on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 Open Source License, some users remain concerned about the future of Arduino under Qualcomm.
