Redis Inc.—Redis relicensed from open-source BSD to dual SSPL/RSAL, prompting Linux Foundation Valkey fork
On March 20, 2024 Redis Inc. announced it was relicensing the Redis project from the permissive BSD license to dual Server Side Public License (SSPL) and Redis Source Available License (RSAL), removing the project from the OSI-approved open source community. The Linux Foundation and major Redis users including AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle responded by forking the project as Valkey within weeks. The move continued the 2018-2024 wave of venture-backed open-source companies (MongoDB, Elastic, HashiCorp, CockroachDB, MariaDB, Redis) pulling licenses back from genuinely open after building community on permissive terms.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Transparency | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Open Source | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Open Source Licensing Integrity | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.737 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Redis relicensed from BSD to SSPL/RSAL, prompting Linux Foundation Valkey fork
Redis Inc.'s March 20, 2024 official announcement detailed the relicensing of the Redis project from BSD to dual SSPL/RSAL, removing it from OSI-approved open source. The Linux Foundation announced Valkey fork within weeks with backing from AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle.