As in title, my company is seeing a huge uptick in abusive messages from Anaconda.com seeking licensing revenue.

They’re hitting many people across the org with legal threats - many with zero control of whether a person uses conda or not. I don’t use it in my job at all, and neither do my teammates.

FWIW - we’re a small-ish growing startup that just recently crossed the 200 employee line. Our product is a database often used for AI and there are many packages within the Anaconda ecosystem that are owned by us, not them. So I don’t know why they’d be hounding us for licensing since the primary reason we’d use conda is to contribute to conda - not consume it.

It’s starting the conversation of needing to drop conda support for future releases. If they’re going to be this utterly vile, then why would we spend the effort packaging for them?

It’s gotten so bad that I’ve made FTC complaints over this. I’m tired of the near daily threats for something I have zero control over.

If anyone else is experiencing this, I highly recommend reporting the abusive comms to the FTC here - https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/ - also forward the emails to your HR/Legal team so they know to contact the state AG.

  • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    20 days ago

    While I’m sure it was inevitable, especially in today’s climate, it saddens me to see Anaconda (and conda by extension I presume) go down like this. When they first came out it was such a breath of fresh air in the Python ecosystem.

    I’m not sure in the details, but what’s the point in relying at all on any of their infrastructure? Is any of it independent enough?

  • ericjmorey@programming.dev
    0·
    20 days ago

    It’s all about your organization’s size and if the organization makes use of the Anaconda controlled defaults channel. I’m not a lawyer, but your company may be liable for some licensing fee if your company is using Anaconda’s repository of binaries. You’d need to consult with an actual lawyer for more reliable assessment of your potential liability.

    Switch to using miniforge and the conda-forge channel when installing and using Conda.

    • th3raid0r@programming.devOP
      1·
      20 days ago

      Sure. I can agree that my company would be liable. But the company isn’t mine. I just work here. And my team doesn’t use any conda stuff at all.

      Essentially, I am being personally threatened of a lawsuit even though I have no ability to make a licensing or purchase decision.

      That just doesn’t sit right with me.

      • ericjmorey@programming.dev
        1·
        19 days ago

        I didn’t read your post correctly. Yeah, that’s harassment at the very least. No better than someone screaming at a retail worker because of some corporate policies.