Arduino Clarifies Terms and Conditions Following Backlash: "Anything That Was Open, Stays Open"

Newly-acquired Qualcomm subsidiary Arduino has defended changes to its terms of service, denying reports that its new corporate owner is looking to lock down a brand once synonymous with open source hardware and software — saying backlash to the changes stems from a misunderstanding of to what they are intended to apply.

"Let us be absolutely clear: we have been open-source long before it was fashionable. We're not going to change now," the Arduino team claims in blog post on the matter. "The Qualcomm acquisition doesn’t modify how user data is handled or how we apply our open-source principles. We periodically update our legal documents to reflect new features, evolving regulations, and best practices. These latest changes are about clarity, compliance, and supporting the innovative environment you expect."

The post comes following considerable community backlash to an updated terms of service and related changes to the company's privacy policy, made in the wake of Qualcomm's acquisition of Arduino — a move that both companies said at the time would not impact Arduino's independence. The usual legal verbiage suggested a ban on "reverse engineering" Arduino products and even a rights-grab to anything written using the Arduino IDE and related tools.

Arduino, though, says this is a misunderstanding. The changes, it says, were never intended to be as broad as they have been interpreted as being; rather, a provision banning reverse engineering applies only to its proprietary Arduino Cloud software-as-a-service platform. "Any hardware, software, or services (e.g Arduino IDE, hardware schematics, tooling and libraries) released with Open Source licenses remain available as before," the Arduino team clarifies. "Anything that was open, stays open."

Terms taken as giving Arduino, and by extension Qualcomm, ownership of Arduino users creations were similarly misinterpreted, the team continues. "The Terms of Service clarifies that the content you choose to publish on the Arduino platform remains yours," the Arduino team says, "and can be used to enable features you’ve requested, such as cloud services and collaboration tools."

"We are very proud of the Arduino community," the post concludes, "and we would like to reaffirm our fundamental, non-negotiable commitment to the principles that founded Arduino."

For those who still have questions, or who require greater assurances, Arduino has added a lengthy section on the changes to its Qualcomm frequently asked questions (FAQ) page.