License Changes for Confluent Platform

Confluent is changing the license for some components of its Confluent Platform from Apache 2.0 to the Confluent Community License, which allows free downloading, modification, and redistribution but prohibits providing the software as a SaaS offering. This change aims to sustain ongoing investment in open source projects while maintaining a healthy business that funds this development. The new license does not affect Apache Kafka, which remains under the Apache 2.0 license. Confluent believes that business can help fund a virtuous cycle of open source contribution and that this licensing change will ensure small open source communities are not acting as unsustainable R&D for tech giants.