How Volcengine Violated Apache SkyWalking’s License: Evidence and Response
The article details how Volcengine redistributed the Apache SkyWalking Java agent without proper licensing, presenting file comparisons, code similarities, and package structures as evidence, and describes the community’s reaction and the company’s subsequent apology and corrective actions.
Apache SkyWalking, an open‑source APM project under the Apache Software Foundation, was found to be illegally redistributed by Volcengine.
On January 28, an anonymous submitter reported a license violation involving a cloud service offering an "Application Performance Monitoring – Distributed Tracing" Java agent, which was downloaded from https://datarangers.com.cn/apminsight/repo/v2/download/java-agent/apminsight-java-agent_latest.tar.gz.
SkyWalking’s team downloaded the agent, archived it, and confirmed it was a secondary distribution of the SkyWalking Java agent.
Evidence includes: agent.config file with identical configuration keys and format, matching the Volcengine version to SkyWalking’s original.
In the apmplus-agent.jar, core classes such as ComponentsDefine are unchanged, including component IDs and names, showing a direct copy from SkyWalking.
The entire package name, hierarchy, and code structure mirror SkyWalking 6.x, confirming a verbatim copy.
Volcengine altered package names, removed Apache headers, and omitted the Apache 2.0 LICENSE and NOTICE files in their redistribution.
No statements on their website acknowledge the distribution of SkyWalking.
These actions violate the Apache 2.0 license and disregard the ASF’s intellectual property and branding.
The SkyWalking community has contacted Volcengine’s legal team and awaits a formal response.
Apache SkyWalking founder Wu Sheng publicly criticized the behavior, and ASF member Guo Wei emphasized the importance of respecting open‑source rules.
After media coverage, Volcengine’s responsible parties announced they would add proper SkyWalking copyright notices to documentation and SDKs, apologize, and commit to stricter compliance with open‑source community standards.
Editor: Da Xiong
Signed-in readers can open the original source through BestHub's protected redirect.
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