BSL license
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What is BSL license?
A software license that makes source code publicly available but restricts production use until a specified date, after which it converts to an Open Source license.
The Business Source License (BSL) balances corporate sustainability with open-source eventualities. Code is publicly readable and free for non-production testing, but production environments require a commercial license. Crucially, the license mandates a "Change Date" (max four years), after which the code automatically transitions to a standard Open Source license (like GPL), guaranteeing users are never permanently vendor-locked.
How it relates to Orbit
Orbit is distributed under Business Source License 1.1 with a four-year change date and conversion to Apache 2.0. See What is Orbit for details.
When you would use it
You encounter BSL when evaluating open-source-adjacent infrastructure tools and must determine if your specific "production use" requires a paid commercial license.
Common operations
- Protecting enterprise infrastructure software (like Terraform) from being resold by cloud providers.
- Allowing community testing of proprietary code.
Related terms
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