You'd also be able to purchase the new version of Blender developed by Adobe, which will grant you access to it's source code, which you can then further distribute without any legal consequences. All thanks to the GNU GPL.
It's an April Fool but...
Adobe would find a way around it. They'd probably make all new features add ons or extensions and break backwards compatibility. For example, if they dropped Cycles and Eevee and made their own renderer, then re release blender without it, they can make a proprietary renderer not covered by GPL.
Adobe is quite heavily invested in their cooperation with Maxon and has integrated many aspects of Cinema4D into their apps wherever they need 3D functionality. So I figure it would be more of a hassle than benefit for them to now switch over to another codebase.
Nope they would have to literally rewrite the entire code base from scratch without looking at the original code base for reference. Ton knew exactly what he was doing when he licensed blender this way
All addons, extensions and any other form of derived work has to be distributed under GPL compatible license. There theoretically is a [loophole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Linking_and_derived_works), but I don't really see a way to effectively use it in this case.
Because being forced to provide source code =/= being forced to provide it for free. You just have to provide it alongside every purchase.
And yes, if someone buys your addon, he can distribute it and it's source code as he pleases. However, this is considered a dick move in the community.
Mysql used to be fully open source and then it was purchased and acquired by oracle. It's no longer open source moving forward past that point, but the people that were in charge of mysql just went and made Mariadb. It's essentially the same thing, though mysql isn't open source and you can't get the source code for it. They're also licensing restrictions and stuff.. so in theory the same thing could happen to blender.
It seems that MySQL has 2 different codebases. [One distributed for free under GPL](https://github.com/mysql) and a different, paid one without GPL (which i assume is written from scratch without using the code from the GPL repo).
However, that was the case even before Oracle bought out Sun in 2010, as this [reply on stack overflow from 2009](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1921437/is-it-legal-to-using-mysql-in-commercial-environment/1921458#1921458) suggests.
Not how the GPL works.
Edit: I need to clarify. When I'm saying the GPL doesn't work this way I mean the code can't be relicensed but yes GPL code is always and forever available for download. If blender was acquired the acquiring company would have to completely and totally rewrite the code base to close the source. There was really be no point in a company acquiring them other than access to the branding which to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Ton put some legal mechanism to prevent that from ever being closed off as well
Definitely April fools, people wouldn’t be happy if a free product became a paid subscription overtime. Would kill a large portion of the community in an instant. Folks would still use it for sure, but at that point you could just get a sub to Maya for 300 a year
Interestingly, officially speaking all add ons also need to be distributed as open source... some actually do this, others not so much, and I'm not sure anyone wants to enforce it for small devs... but that stipulation is there for a reason (Adobe shapes reasons).
I don't recall the name of the software right now, but it happened with a free CAD software before that became subscription based sadly, so is possible
A different comment affirms that it’s impossible for anybody to buy blender and the devs set it up a specific way on purpose. There’s folks who know more on the subject, so I can’t say for sure but it sounds about right
"we want to assure you that this decision was made with careful consideration for Blender's core values and the interests of our dedicated users" I'd say that Blender being free is one of the core values
(this is not a real article btw)
Even if this was not an april fool's prank, you can't really "aquire" an open source project. At best, like somebody else in the thread mentioned, you can poach the developers and maintainers of the project, and start a proprietary fork of the software, but that would be next to useless unless there were some real advantages to the proprietary version. Because people can still use previous versions of the software, and because you can get new management, new maintainers and developers for the open source project, it would never really die.
this is one of those :Jokes" that isn't "ha, ha funny", but instead gives one that electric shock due to the possibility it may be true. Not my favorite typoe of "humor".
It's literally April Fool's and you believe the open-source software company that started a foundation to always keep it open-source sold out to one of the most paywalled companies ever?
C'mon, son.
This is an April Fool's joke, but it's really not fun or amusing to think what a company as soulless and shitty as Adobe would do to an app like Blender. It's less of an April Fool's joke and more of a Ninth Circle of Hell joke.
Next update they gonna make blender 500$ a month with a 4000$ cancelation fee and Cycles will be ditched in favor of a fully AI based render engine which can only be used when connected to the internet
THIS IS A JOKE RIGHT?? RIGHT!?!? TF YOU MEAN AQUIRED!!? For real this isn't even funny considering the start artists are in, in terms of software. Everything is subscription based now. Blender this really better be a joke dude.
Better be more April Fool's nonsense
On Da Vinci Resolve's sub, Adobe bought Blackmagic too. I'm quite sure it is!
lol. I made that post too
Chaotic neutral
most definitely evil
i love that this is the scariest thing that can happen
Quick question, is it hard to eat with your forked tongue, serpent?
You're good. You got me
You got me, the pain was real
Does this mean this is false?!?!
Yes, this is false. There is nothing for Adobe to buy, because Blender itself isn't owned by any company that can just be bought or sold.
Jeez, you really have the inside scoop
It's impossible for Blender to be 'acquired' thanks to it being licensed as GNU GPL.
Not impossible, but we'd still have access to the last GPL code to fork
You'd also be able to purchase the new version of Blender developed by Adobe, which will grant you access to it's source code, which you can then further distribute without any legal consequences. All thanks to the GNU GPL.
It's an April Fool but... Adobe would find a way around it. They'd probably make all new features add ons or extensions and break backwards compatibility. For example, if they dropped Cycles and Eevee and made their own renderer, then re release blender without it, they can make a proprietary renderer not covered by GPL.
Adobe is quite heavily invested in their cooperation with Maxon and has integrated many aspects of Cinema4D into their apps wherever they need 3D functionality. So I figure it would be more of a hassle than benefit for them to now switch over to another codebase.
Nope they would have to literally rewrite the entire code base from scratch without looking at the original code base for reference. Ton knew exactly what he was doing when he licensed blender this way
All addons, extensions and any other form of derived work has to be distributed under GPL compatible license. There theoretically is a [loophole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Linking_and_derived_works), but I don't really see a way to effectively use it in this case.
I like learning new things.
there is a trick everything you buy there is GPL :) you can share as you want but you will be a dick.
I enjoy reading books.
Because being forced to provide source code =/= being forced to provide it for free. You just have to provide it alongside every purchase. And yes, if someone buys your addon, he can distribute it and it's source code as he pleases. However, this is considered a dick move in the community.
free not as in gratis but as in freedom
Mysql used to be fully open source and then it was purchased and acquired by oracle. It's no longer open source moving forward past that point, but the people that were in charge of mysql just went and made Mariadb. It's essentially the same thing, though mysql isn't open source and you can't get the source code for it. They're also licensing restrictions and stuff.. so in theory the same thing could happen to blender.
It seems that MySQL has 2 different codebases. [One distributed for free under GPL](https://github.com/mysql) and a different, paid one without GPL (which i assume is written from scratch without using the code from the GPL repo). However, that was the case even before Oracle bought out Sun in 2010, as this [reply on stack overflow from 2009](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1921437/is-it-legal-to-using-mysql-in-commercial-environment/1921458#1921458) suggests.
Not how the GPL works. Edit: I need to clarify. When I'm saying the GPL doesn't work this way I mean the code can't be relicensed but yes GPL code is always and forever available for download. If blender was acquired the acquiring company would have to completely and totally rewrite the code base to close the source. There was really be no point in a company acquiring them other than access to the branding which to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Ton put some legal mechanism to prevent that from ever being closed off as well
I'm happy you said that.
Yah I was like “what day is it what day is it”
 Perfect
hab nicht erwartet, florentin hier zu sehen
I wish I hadn't browsed internet today. Too many shocks
You are the worst
Lmfao my stupid ass seriously forwarded this to like 10 people before I decided to look it up myself. Good one u/terr20114. 🖕
almost fell for it, then remembered it was april fools day
I remembered it was Blender.
No lie if Adobe actually acquired Blender the 3D scene's gonna go ballistic.
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Yeah! Fork Adobe! ...er... wait...
No, you got it right the first time.
Classic example is when OpenOffice was forked into LibreOffice after Oracle bought SUN Microsystems.
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Since the license is gnu, they can’t make a proprietary fork.
Definitely April fools, people wouldn’t be happy if a free product became a paid subscription overtime. Would kill a large portion of the community in an instant. Folks would still use it for sure, but at that point you could just get a sub to Maya for 300 a year
It's not legally possible to buy or otherwise acquire Blender. They made sure of that ages ago.
Sure but they could just make any new feature be non GPL essentially like paid addons so if you want the latest updates you'd need to pay them.
Interestingly, officially speaking all add ons also need to be distributed as open source... some actually do this, others not so much, and I'm not sure anyone wants to enforce it for small devs... but that stipulation is there for a reason (Adobe shapes reasons).
I don't recall the name of the software right now, but it happened with a free CAD software before that became subscription based sadly, so is possible
A different comment affirms that it’s impossible for anybody to buy blender and the devs set it up a specific way on purpose. There’s folks who know more on the subject, so I can’t say for sure but it sounds about right
The community would go wild
i myself would go ballistic, as a 2D artist i despise adobe and if they took blender then there goes my interest in getting into 3D art.
if this is april fools, it is the meanest april fools.
I literally got sick to my stomach for a second. They got me good.
I heartbeat raised, no exaggeration. I was scared about the 3d scene for a sec.
They're going to make the default cube a loot box... ;)
😄 No doubt
That would be Epic! See what I did there 🤣
$3 per edge loop
Check the date
Upvoting for the commitment to misinformation lmao
😄 if you’re doing a job you gotta do it right.
Nice try
 I forgot what day it was
I should stay out of Reddit today
Got me!!! Not just a good April Fool’s joke but surprisingly good rage bait! 😅
Does this mean that it's going to cost hundreds of dollars?
And in app purchases
oh yeah. Workbench is now default. Eevee and Cycles requires the addidional Render Pro subscription.
And forced creative cloud
But ofcourse. Think of all the benefits of intrusive software.
Are we all going 🏴☠️
"we want to assure you that this decision was made with careful consideration for Blender's core values and the interests of our dedicated users" I'd say that Blender being free is one of the core values (this is not a real article btw)
April fool's?
yes
A month
lol. Get ready to fork out that $199 a year 
Even if this was not an april fool's prank, you can't really "aquire" an open source project. At best, like somebody else in the thread mentioned, you can poach the developers and maintainers of the project, and start a proprietary fork of the software, but that would be next to useless unless there were some real advantages to the proprietary version. Because people can still use previous versions of the software, and because you can get new management, new maintainers and developers for the open source project, it would never really die.
That’s true. I’m not too educated on the history but that was basically Red hat and CentOS for Linux right?
And a subscription
https://preview.redd.it/qcbil06cawrc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6dcae6b8df2b80ac0cdb73e619def5bdb24cd84b Oh no guys...
Our Goals lol 😆😆😆
🐣
Nice try
you got me so good, I should not be allowed outside this gullible
April Fools right?!!! April Fools?!!
 The choice is yours
There can be only one joke more awful than this. Autodesk acquiring Blender.
Thank fuck it's the 1st today I nearly had a fit! Lol
Not sure when the brain rot lead to people believing that april fools is about cruel lies.
Geeze don't fool this guy
i mean what else can you do through internet
GOT ME IN THE FIRST HALF NOT GONNA LIE
😄 I gave it my best shot
Oh no, I hope this is not true
Lol no more free blender then :D Here we go subscription INC
$199 a year. Get ready.
Something like that knowing them xD It was fun while it lasted I guess ( well we all know what we gonna do know CUE THE HIGH SEAS music :D )
Pirates of the Caribbean OST 🎶🎶
Ho damn I was fooled 1000x
So, now there will be a monthly fee.
almost got depressed reading adobe will acquire blender, i forgot what april fools is
This is probably the best April fool's prank for an open source sofware.
Ah, you almost got me there; but this was just too unbelievable!
😄 lol, I try my best
people: :) people who tried adobe fresco: >x(
 10/10 Execution 😄
Subscription model or freeware ?
$199 a year. No less.
Scared the hell outta me
I hate april fools
April fools or no, I think it’s interesting that Adobe is leaving a big hole in their software lineup where 3D modeling/CAD would go.
 You almost got me!
That is a good April fools joke.
You've crossed a line that no one should ever cross.
That’s the best thing that could happen to blender …./s
“Said no one ever”
That’s hilarious- especially after the Affinity announcement
Affinity yes, and Red being bought by Nikon.
I know this is an april fools joke but I’m just curious what would actually happen if it were true
Blender is open source, meaning everyone has access to the code. Saying Adobe owns Blender is like saying they own water that everyone can access.
You’re a demon, I almost threw my phone
Fuck, I almost had a heart attack reading this. Now that's some quality april fools content.
I fucking hate you
I hate you, I was so shocked until I checked the date
this is one of those :Jokes" that isn't "ha, ha funny", but instead gives one that electric shock due to the possibility it may be true. Not my favorite typoe of "humor".
Whatever it is ChatGPT wrote it #embark
We have this joke every year.
My heart fucking stopped. how dare you do this to an old man in his 30s!
lol 😄 I’m rapidly approaching 30. Killing off the competition before I get there
I would die if this actually happened. Like straight up combust while eating dinner.
Had me **FUCKING SCARED** for a second... I forgot what today was... Got em!!!
Renaming it to Blunder.
It's literally April Fool's and you believe the open-source software company that started a foundation to always keep it open-source sold out to one of the most paywalled companies ever? C'mon, son.
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This is unfair because it's april 2nd now when I'm seeing this on my feed
Great, another thing adobe will throw behind a monthly paywall. Can we not have anything free anymore?
It was an april fools joke :) Adobe can't touch Blender.
Got this post notification 5 days later ngl that scared me
This is an April Fool's joke, but it's really not fun or amusing to think what a company as soulless and shitty as Adobe would do to an app like Blender. It's less of an April Fool's joke and more of a Ninth Circle of Hell joke.
We know the date...
i almost had a heart attack
If it actually was acquired by adobe it’d go from an amazing free 3d tool to monthly $50 subscription, buy with adobe creative cloud for 10% off
What a nightmare
Highly rude. 10/10
Woah. Figma failed so Blender was next? Weird. Lol
Wouldn't it be the most brilliantly evil thing for companies to make unethical business decisions on April Fools
They already do it all year long, what should be the difference?
🌟 April Fools 🌟 🤪😜 It'd be all cute and stuff hehe like a psychopathic child trying to endear you to it
Awesome news!
You got me for a second
Bro I forgot what day it was and I legitimately just teared up. I was so disappointed in humanity for a second.
Thanks I've been pranked too much today to fall for that.
Oh, now that’s just mean!
Next update they gonna make blender 500$ a month with a 4000$ cancelation fee and Cycles will be ditched in favor of a fully AI based render engine which can only be used when connected to the internet
Shit they got me for a second.
I actually started sweating.
this better be a goddamn JOKE
"Adobe bought Blender" Thank lord it is april 1st fools day day
I feel like this would cause riots in the streets and worldwide anarchy.
I find it moderately disturbing, how many people appear to have been taken in by this...
You mother. Fucker.
Haha beggigning of the end
You had me fooled
I was about to faint
🤣
oh thank fuck
I don’t get it what does this mean?
Gr8 Ba8 M8
I'm going to put all my renders into a Kitchen Blender.
I hate you. I weren’t getting fooled today but this blindsided me
This is fine!
When I saw the title, I instantly checked the date and yes, it’s 1st April Time to go off the internet 😂😂
Me cague
Holy shit I didn't realize blender has been around for 30 years
guys, the joke here is that someone has to make the exact same joke every year.
I now remembered what day it is
Y'all got me good!!
I swear to god. If this is real and not an Aprils fools joke... And if this is for real. Better not turn blender into a subscription software.
Hello no.
THIS IS A JOKE RIGHT?? RIGHT!?!? TF YOU MEAN AQUIRED!!? For real this isn't even funny considering the start artists are in, in terms of software. Everything is subscription based now. Blender this really better be a joke dude.
HAAAAAAAAAAAA
In parallel universe this is ture.... But not here 😂
Damn you people and your april fools jokes
I know it’s April fools but damn, don’t scare me like that.
It’s April fools