Adafruit: Arduino's Rules are 'Incompatible with Open Source'

Source: Dev.to

Background

Last week, I spoke to Arduino, Adafruit and the EFF about Qualcomm’s October acquisition of the beloved company known for its single‑board microcontroller kits — and its new Terms & Conditions.

Arduino’s New Restrictions

Arduino now lists “prohibited uses of AI,” which include:

• Criminal use and violation of the law
• Intentions to harm (including dissemination of false information and manipulative or deceptive acts)
• Generating facial‑recognition databases
• Military use

An Arduino blog post argues its new AI features are optional. However, the conditions also grant the right to “monitor User accounts and use of the AI Product … [for] verifying compliance with laws and this policy” and for other reasons, including “administering and managing Arduino’s business.”

Adafruit’s Response

Adafruit founder Ladyada says Arduino’s usage restrictions “effectively override the freedoms the license is supposed to guarantee.”

Adafruit’s Fried states that Arduino “should, of course, comply with applicable laws and respond appropriately to clear evidence of criminal activity,” but adds that “they should design their AI and cloud offerings so that monitoring is narrowly targeted, proportionate, and clearly explained, instead of defaulting to broad surveillance across all users.”

Open‑Source Implications

“Genuine open‑source licenses do not allow field‑of‑use restrictions,” Fried said. “You cannot say ‘this code is open source, but it may not be used for military purposes’ and still call the license open source.”