[redis-db] Free and open Redis modules

[Nathan Scott]

Hi all,

With the recent licensing changes[0] to several Redis Labs modules[1]
making them no longer free and open source, GNU/Linux distributions
such as Debian[2] and Fedora[3] are no longer able to ship Redis Labs'
versions of the affected modules to their users.

[0] https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2018/aug/22/commons-clause/
[1] https://redislabs.com/community/licenses/
[2] https://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
[3] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing

As a result we have begun collaborating on a set of module
repositories[4] forked from prior to the license change. We will
maintain changes to these modules under their original open source
licenses, applying only free and open fixes and updates[5].

[4] https://github.com/GoodFORM
[5] https://goodformcode.com/

We are committed to making these available under an open source
license permanently, and welcome community involvement.


You can find further background information here:

[LWN.net: "Redis modules and the Commons Clause"]
https://lwn.net/Articles/763179/

[ZDNet: "Redis Labs and Common Clause attacked where it hurts"]
https://www.zdnet.com/article/redis-labs-and-common-clause-attacked-where-it-hurts-with-open-source-code

[The Register: "Redis has a license to kill: Open-source database
maker takes some code proprietary"]
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/23/redis_database_license_change/

[TechRepublic: "Why Redis Labs made a huge mistake when it changed its
open source licensing strategy"]
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-redis-labs-made-a-huge-mistake-when-it-changed-its-open-source-licensing-strategy/


cheers.

--
Nathan

[Pierre Chapuis]

I expected something like that regarding the modules, and I guess Redis
Labs knew this would happen too.

However since you posted those article links which contain a lot of FUD
about Redis Core, let me repeat this here. According to all the information
publicly available:


- The Redis copyright belongs to Salvatore.
- The Redis trademark and logo belong to Salvatore.
-

Hence there is *absolutely no way* Redis Labs can re-license Redis Core in
any way, because *it never belonged to them in the first place*.

I hope most people in this group are aware of this by now, but I am a bit
sick of seeing all this FUD in the tech media...

[Salvatore Sanfilippo]

Hello Pierre, thanks for trying to set the record straight, however
not everything is correct in your email.

Background: I understand the position taken by Nathan and Chris, the
good thing about licenses is that they speak clearly, and it is a good
reminder that if you change license the previous version is still
under the old license.
So they have all the rights to do so. However I believe that OSS
happens not because of licenses but principally because there are
people that want to write and share code, so my feeling is that for
such projects to succeed they need to have a critical mass of
contributions otherwise is just a political exercise (political in a
good sense, it shows that licenses give you *rights*). It's a very
interesting experiment all in all.

That said, it is true that:

1. The Redis core is BSD and free.
2. 99.99% of users use just the Redis core. This percentage is
conservative and is probably higher... Redis modules produced by Redis
Labs have a big value for people trying to solve certain business
cases that are normally not addressable by Redis, having the same
advantages of Redis, so the modules are very useful but their target
right now is not what normally Redis users do with Redis. They target
more AFAIK enterprises with certain scaling problems for which the
Redis architecture is good.
3. Contrarily to the Redis modules, for the Redis core *there is* a
big amount of contributors outside of Redis Labs. A fork after a Redis
license switch would happen with sizable development force. I'll not
change the Redis core license, but even if I would Redis is protected.

So I think that there was quite some amount of disinformation ongoing.
This happens, is normal, however IMHO the open source community is
losing its real target not understanding that here the problem is not
the company that tried to sponsor for years OSS, but some other
company that is making this model no longer *possible*. But again,
this is my political POV... everybody has a different one.

However that said, the Redis *name and logo* are no longer mine, I
transferred them to Redis Labs time ago as I became a shareholder of
the company, so such assets are only mine for a percentage.
I was not able to handle the IP issues that started to arise from the
name/logo, so we wrote together a set of rules published in the site,
you can call things like "XYZ for Redis" for example, but other naming
schemes are denied, and there are fair use rules for the logo, however
I wanted to be protected against people calling Redis what is not
Redis, or using the Redis logo to advertise forks of the product, and
in general all the uses (including the ones of cloud providers) that
end using the Redis trademark that was hard gained in 10 years of OSS
development to advertise their services.
Moreover I was bored to reply to legal emails, and I was also willing
to provide some assets to my own company that made Redis possible for
the last 5 years, so I provided those assets to Redis Labs time ago.

A different matter is instead the Redis *source code* copyright which
is mine for the part I contributed, and is anyway of no use in a BSD
product... more or less. Everybody can do with Redis everything.
Yet I *require* people making a fork to change the name of the project.

I hope that this may make things more clear,
Cheers,
Salvatore

I expected something like that regarding the modules, and I guess Redis Labs knew this would happen too.
The Redis copyright belongs to Salvatore.
The Redis trademark and logo belong to Salvatore.
Hence there is absolutely no way Redis Labs can re-license Redis Core in any way, because it never belonged to them in the first place.
I hope most people in this group are aware of this by now, but I am a bit sick of seeing all this FUD in the tech media...
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Redis DB" group.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/redis-db.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Salvatore 'antirez' Sanfilippo
open source developer - Redis Labs https://redislabs.com

"If a system is to have conceptual integrity, someone must control the
concepts."
— Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month", 1975.

[Pierre Chapuis]

Post by Salvatore Sanfilippo
However that said, the Redis *name and logo* are no longer mine, I
transferred them to Redis Labs time ago as I became a shareholder of
the company, so such assets are only mine for a percentage.

OK I didn't know, sorry. I guess this page should be updated then [1].

[1] https://redis.io/topics/license/

[Salvatore Sanfilippo]

Thanks Pierre, I'll do right now.

Post by Pierre Chapuis

Post by Salvatore Sanfilippo
However that said, the Redis *name and logo* are no longer mine, I
transferred them to Redis Labs time ago as I became a shareholder of
the company, so such assets are only mine for a percentage.

OK I didn't know, sorry. I guess this page should be updated then [1].
[1] https://redis.io/topics/license/
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Redis DB" group.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/redis-db.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Salvatore 'antirez' Sanfilippo
open source developer - Redis Labs https://redislabs.com

"If a system is to have conceptual integrity, someone must control the
concepts."
— Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month", 1975.