My understanding is that you can use Confluent's software to run your own stack and offer a service, and you can do that for free. You just can't offer a servi

My understanding is that you can use Confluent's software to run your own stack and offer a service, and you can do that for free. You just can't offer a service that competes directly with theirs. It's like if Google said, "Here's our search algorithm. You are free to use it on your website behind your paywall to give your users a better experience, but you are NOT allowed to use it to establish a competing search service on the broader internet. I don't really have a problem with it- I think it's fair. I think the question of whether it should be allowed on Github is fair- can someone accidentally find themselves legally bound? But it's probably an edge case.