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License

Bindy is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

Copyright 2025-2026 Erick Bourgeois, firestoned

Apache License 2.0

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this software except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

The full text is in LICENSE at the repository root, together with the NOTICE file that section 4(d) of the License asks redistributors to preserve.

What the License Allows

Permissions:

  • ✅ Commercial use
  • ✅ Modification
  • ✅ Distribution
  • ✅ Private use
  • ✅ Patent use - contributors grant an express patent license (section 3)

Conditions:

  • 📋 Include the license text and the NOTICE file when redistributing
  • 📋 State significant changes made to the code
  • 📋 Preserve copyright, patent, trademark and attribution notices

Limitations:

  • ❌ No trademark rights
  • ❌ No liability
  • ❌ No warranty

Patent retaliation: the patent grant terminates for anyone who starts patent litigation claiming the software infringes (section 3). This is the main practical difference from the MIT license Bindy used before 2026-10-04, and a protection, not a restriction, for users.

SPDX Headers

Every source file carries the project header, verified in CI on every pull request:

// Copyright (c) 2025 Erick Bourgeois, firestoned
// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

Dependencies

Bindy depends only on permissively licensed libraries, enforced by cargo-deny against the allow-list in .cargo/deny.toml (copyleft licenses are refused). Representative core dependencies:

Dependency License Purpose
kube-rs Apache-2.0 Kubernetes client library
tokio MIT Async runtime
serde MIT OR Apache-2.0 Serialization framework
tracing MIT Structured logging
anyhow / thiserror MIT OR Apache-2.0 Error handling
hickory-proto MIT OR Apache-2.0 DNS protocol / TSIG
rustls / ring Apache-2.0 / ISC-style TLS and cryptography

The authoritative per-release inventory is the SBOM shipped with every release (see Signed Releases); the full policy is in License Policy.

Container Images

  • Bindy operator images (Chainguard and Distroless variants) contain the bindy binary under Apache-2.0 on their respective minimal base images.
  • The BIND9 operand image is upstream ISC BIND 9, licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0; bindy configures it but does not redistribute modified BIND sources.

Contributions

The Apache License 2.0 carries its own contribution terms (section 5): unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in Bindy is licensed under Apache-2.0, without additional terms. You retain copyright to your contributions. See Contributing.

License Compatibility

  • ✅ Code under MIT, BSD (2- and 3-clause), ISC, CC0/Unlicense can be incorporated into Bindy
  • ✅ Apache-2.0 code can be included in GPLv3 projects (one-way)
  • ⚠️ Apache-2.0 is not compatible with GPLv2-only projects
  • ✅ Bindy itself remains free to use in commercial and proprietary deployments

Questions About Licensing

If you have questions about using Bindy in your project, license compliance, contributing, or third-party dependencies, open a GitHub Discussion or contact the maintainers.

Additional Resources