Redis changes its licence model

[Oscar Besga]

https://redis.com/blog/redis-adopts-dual-source-available-licensing/

via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1bjx28t/redis_adopts_dual_sourceavailable_licensing_redis/

Basically, it changes from BSD to SSPLv1, like mongodb.

This change will be effective in version 7.4 and will apply to all newerr versions.

My understanding is:

- Redis will be free to use into your projects, private or public or opensource; that doesn't offer Redis functionality directly.

- This is aimed against cloud revendors like AmazonAWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud that replicate/resell Redis funcionality.

- Regardless of this, sure Redis usage will be impacted and a lot of people will not like it and will discontinue support or extension of RedisDB

- Time to explore alternatives ? Lije KeyDB ?

Ok, what do you guys think about this ?

[Viktor Söderqvist]

"Redis" is no longer open source. This is unacceptable.

The open source project will continue, just with a different name. The
name is not yet decided but we have a temporary place here:

https://github.com/placeholderkv/placeholderkv

Please join this project, all of you! Most of the contributors are with
us, so we will keep the momentum forward and Redis Labs proprietary fork
will fall behind and soon nobody will use it.

There are also other forks. Everyone is free to use whichever fork they
like, but most of the active contributors are joining the one mentioned
above, so I believe it's where the most progress will happen.

Cheer,
Viktor



On 2024-03-21 14:17, Oscar Besga wrote:
>
> https://redis.com/blog/redis-adopts-dual-source-available-licensing/
> <https://redis.com/blog/redis-adopts-dual-source-available-licensing/>
> /via reddit
> https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1bjx28t/redis_adopts_dual_sourceavailable_licensing_redis/ <https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1bjx28t/redis_adopts_dual_sourceavailable_licensing_redis/>/

>
> Basically, it changes from BSD to SSPLv1, like mongodb.
> This change will be effective in version 7.4 and will apply to all
> newerr versions.
>
> My understanding is:
> - Redis will be free to use into your projects, private or public or
> opensource; that doesn't offer Redis functionality directly.
> - This is aimed against cloud revendors like AmazonAWS, Microsoft Azure,
> Google Cloud that replicate/resell Redis funcionality.
> - Regardless of this, sure Redis usage will be impacted and a lot of
> people will not like it and will discontinue support or extension of RedisDB
> - Time to explore alternatives ? Lije KeyDB ?
>
> Ok, what do you guys think about this ?
>

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[Oscar Besga]

Thanks for your project.

Also, there is Keydb that ios also open source (for now)

But the real support is on redis now, so we will see...

[irthoma...@gmail.com]

Can we fork from 7.3 and continue on that licence? 

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[Oscar Besga]

Yes, you can fork, and others had done that too.

My final thoughts in this case.

I understand that making a product / project and paying the development process while other bahamuts take it for free and profit the millions can be infuriating and frustrating. Sometimes, they obfuscate you by the seer force of being the big fish in the tank. Amazon, Google and others offering your service and your product with no payback, nor in money, nor in code, nor in anything but good words and pats on the back is barely acceptable.

I can understand this move.

In the other hand, they have been profiting in being an open-source project. By contributions (Redis core and drivers), distribution (linux distros including in their repos), free advertising, and sympathy for being an open source project; they have grown and expanded on this. Other products, not being open source, didn't have this benefits. Now, changing suddenly the licence feels like a betrayal on people who have chosen and invested on that project. Specially when you do it with little time to prepare, without warning and from one minor version to another. This move seems more like a money-grabbing trap than an investment and project protection. And it also has hurt the confidence in the project.

I don't think this was a good move.

For the moment, I will continue using Redis as a lot of people (I suspect), because for my use - not reselling the product as service but using it inside my project - doesn't seem to be affected. But I have my trust somehow broken and will keep an eye on alternatives.

As an aside, these are (new and old) alternatives for Redis

• Keydb, an old key-value compatible database (https://docs.keydb.dev/)
• Valkey, a fork born from the licence change, supposedly supported by Amazon and Google (https://github.com/valkey-io/valkey)
• Garnet, a Microsoft reimplementation in C# (https://github.com/microsoft/garnet?ref=thestack.technology)