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https://www.computerworld.com/article/2074112/software-vendors-dump-open-source-go-for-the-cash-grab.html>
"Essentially, all software is built using open source. By Synopsys’ count, 96%
of all codebases contain open-source software.
Lately, though, there’s been a very disturbing trend. A company will make its
program using open source, make millions from it, and then — and only then —
switch licenses, leaving their contributors, customers, and partners in the
lurch as they try to grab billions. I’m sick of it.
The latest IT melodrama baddie is Redis. Its program, which goes by the same
name, is an extremely popular in-memory database. (Unless you’re a developer,
chances are you’ve never heard of it.) One recent valuation shows Redis to be
worth about $2 billion — even without an AI play! That, anyone can understand.
What did it do? To quote Redis: “Beginning today, all future versions of Redis
will be released with source-available licenses. Starting with Redis 7.4, Redis
will be dual-licensed under the Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and
Server Side Public License (SSPLv1). Consequently, Redis will no longer be
distributed under the three-clause Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).”
For those of you who aren’t open-source licensing experts, this means
developers can no longer use Redis’ code. Sure, they can look at it, but they
can’t export, borrow from, or touch it.
Redis pulled this same kind of trick in 2018 with some of its subsidiary code.
Now it’s done so with the company’s crown jewels.
Redis is far from the only company to make such a move. Last year, HashiCorp
dumped its main program Terraform’s Mozilla Public License (MPL) for the
Business Source License (BSL) 1.1. Here, the name of the new license game is to
prevent anyone from competing with Terraform.
Would it surprise you to learn that not long after this, HashiCorp started
shopping itself around for a buyer? It didn’t surprise me."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
