Hacker News Reader

Comment by candiddevmike | Hacker News Reader

Technically, according to HashiCorp's BSL, using GitHub Actions to apply Terraform could be a license violation.

I... do not think so? Yes, creating a commercial github action to apply terraform would, but any non-commercial and/or non-distributed one should be fine, no?

> You may make production use of the Licensed Work, provided such use does not include offering the Licensed Work to third parties on a hosted or embedded basis which is competitive with HashiCorp's products.

Using GitHub Actions to deploy your Terraform code (you becoming the third party) is competitive with HashiCorp's products. There is no delineation about commercialization.

HashiCorp probably won't come after you, but to me it shows this wasn't really thought through or it's maliciously ambiguous.

But you are the second party, there is no third party involved when you use the software for yourself.

You're not using the software, you're using it on a 3rd party (GitHub).

You running a thing on third-party infrastructure for your own use is now offering the licensed work to third parties? How do you figure?

No, I don't see how you could arrive at that interpretation. Unless you're providing a "competitive offering" invoking terraform on Github Actions, or on any platform, or on your laptop, going by terms of their BSL that would not constitute a license violation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com