Hi! I found Railway today and got excited about it. Signed up and started reading the presented ToS.

I think I'm missing something but it sounds like I basically have to grant Railway a free license for using all my source code?

I'll be using the term "source code" loosely as to mean any code, configs, designs, etc. relating to what and how I would deploy on Railway.

Quoting the ToS:

• "Anything you post, upload, share, store, or otherwise provide through the Services is your “User Submission”."

  • I assume since I would upload my source code to deploy, it would meet the criteria for a User Submission.

• "By submitting User Submissions through the Services, you hereby do and shall grant Railway (i) a license to use, translate, modify (for technical purposes, for example, making sure your content is viewable on a mobile device as well as a computer) and reproduce and otherwise act with respect to the User Submissions in connection with providing and operating the Services, (and with respect to Public User Submissions only, including after termination of your account or the Services) and (ii) a non-exclusive, royalty-free, limited license to use your name, logo and trademark(s) on Railway’s website and in other marketing materials to identify you as a customer."

  • Sounds like I'm granting Railway a license to use/modify/reproduce my source code, as long as it is connected with providing and operating the Services (which is basically anything that makes business sense).

• "You also hereby do and shall grant each user of this site and/or the Services a non-exclusive, perpetual license to access your User Submissions through this site and/or the Services, and to use, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions, (and with respect to Public User Submissions only, including after termination of your account or the Services)."

  • It's not mentioned whether my source code would at any point become accessible to other Railway users. So if it somehow does, now everybody has a license for my source code.

• "You agree that the licenses you grant are royalty-free, perpetual, sublicensable, irrevocable, and worldwide, provided that when you delete your Railway account, we will (i) stop displaying your User Submissions to other users (other than Public User Submissions, which may remain fully available) and (ii) delete any User Submissions of source code."

  • So I would be granting a free super-permissive license to everything of mine on the platform for Railway to use and I can't take it back.

I want to try deploying our solutions to Railway but this is a big roadblock to even trying out or considering moving to Railway.