By Elasticsearch did it in 2021, Hashicorp followed in 2023: They switched from open source licenses to a more restricted licensing model. And the trend goes on, unfortunately for Open Source enthusiasts like me; Redis has just announced to adopt commercial dual source licensing and ditching the previously used open source BSD license.
Starting yesterday, March 20th 2024, all future versions of Redis will be released with a dual-license: The Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and Server Side Public License (SSPLv1).
Although the source code will continue to be available for free, the new license has a large effect on how Redis can be used. Hosting providers offering Redis as a service will no longer permitted to do so, unless they specifically agreed to the new licensing terms of Redis (which most likely can be translated to a paid license).
The reason, according to Redis Inc., is the lack of of managing commercial uses of Redis.
A questionnaire has been put together on the Redis announcement, giving answers as to WHY?, implications for developers and providers and more.
