CNCF told OpenTelemetry .NET maintainer Martin Costello that its use of Verify.XunitV3’s newer NuGet packages cannot be approved as a license exception because the Open Source Maintenance Fee is inconsistent with open source licensing, and recommended the project either build from the MIT-licensed source or keep using versions published before the fee took effect. Costello filed the request on October 1, noting the snapshot-testing dependency is not shipped in any user-facing code and that he understood OpenTelemetry to qualify for the OSMF’s free open source exemption. OSMF creator Rob Mensching pushed back the same day, saying the fee is explicitly built to be compatible with F/OSS licenses and asking CNCF to explain its rationale. The exchange sets a foundation’s third-party license policy directly against the paid-binaries maintenance model that has been spreading through the .NET ecosystem.
CNCF rejects Open Source Maintenance Fee exception for OpenTelemetry's Verify dependency
CNCF told OpenTelemetry .NET maintainer Martin Costello that its use of Verify.XunitV3's newer NuGet packages cannot be approved as a license exception because the Open Source Maintenance Fee is inconsistent with open source licensing, and recommended the project either build from the MIT-licensed source or keep using versions published before the fee took effect. Costello filed the request on October 1, noting the snapshot-testing dependency is not shipped in any user-facing code and that he understood OpenTelemetry to qualify for the OSMF's free open source exemption. OSMF creator Rob Mensching pushed back the same day, saying the fee is explicitly built to be compatible with F/OSS licenses and asking CNCF to explain its rationale. The exchange sets a foundation's third-party license policy directly against the paid-binaries maintenance model that has been spreading through the .NET ecosystem.
Source: Github