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Can they do this? Open source contributions to their codebase were under a different license. They don't have the copyright for those contributions without a CL

by depr 3y ago

Can they do this? Open source contributions to their codebase were under a different license. They don't have the copyright for those contributions without a CLA (I can't find one). So how can they relicense those contributions?

weinzierl 3y ago
Sure. Only the new contributions are under the new license the older contributions are not affected at all. The follow-up question would be what allows them to still use the old contributions together with the new proprietary ones and the answer is: the permissive license of the old contributions. If the old contributors have not wanted that, they should not have contributed to a project under a permissive license.
- kelnos 3y ago
  To be clear (for the GP and others): the consequence of the parent's second paragraph is that if the old license were something like the GPL, this wouldn't be allowed, unless all copyright holders consented to the change. (The GPL specifically does not allow "adding restrictions", which the new licenses do.) But since the old license is BSD/MIT (I think?), it's fine. BSD/MIT code is still licensed as such, but can be commingled with code under the new licenses without issues. BSD/MIT's terms can still be complied with under the new licenses.
rcxdude 3y ago
It was BSD before, which allows relicensing by anyone (though they do need to preserve the original notice).
- okanat 3y ago
  BSD doesn't allow relicensing. I don't think any license that does either. However, BSD allows the licensees to incorporate the source however they want as long as they keep the notice visible.It doesn't transfer the ownership so re-licensing isn't possible. So basically Redis becomes a licensee of the third party contributors and BSD happens to be quite permissive that Redis can relicense their own parts while keep using other people's creations under BSD without limitations.
  - fmajid 3y ago
    GPL allows relicensing with any later version of GPL.

by depr 3y ago

weinzierl 3y ago

Sure. Only the new contributions are under the new license the older contributions are not affected at all. The follow-up question would be what allows them to still use the old contributions together with the new proprietary ones and the answer is: the permissive license of the old contributions. If the old contributors have not wanted that, they should not have contributed to a project under a permissive license.

kelnos 3y ago
To be clear (for the GP and others): the consequence of the parent's second paragraph is that if the old license were something like the GPL, this wouldn't be allowed, unless all copyright holders consented to the change. (The GPL specifically does not allow "adding restrictions", which the new licenses do.) But since the old license is BSD/MIT (I think?), it's fine. BSD/MIT code is still licensed as such, but can be commingled with code under the new licenses without issues. BSD/MIT's terms can still be complied with under the new licenses.

rcxdude 3y ago

It was BSD before, which allows relicensing by anyone (though they do need to preserve the original notice).

okanat 3y ago
BSD doesn't allow relicensing. I don't think any license that does either. However, BSD allows the licensees to incorporate the source however they want as long as they keep the notice visible.It doesn't transfer the ownership so re-licensing isn't possible. So basically Redis becomes a licensee of the third party contributors and BSD happens to be quite permissive that Redis can relicense their own parts while keep using other people's creations under BSD without limitations.
- fmajid 3y ago
  GPL allows relicensing with any later version of GPL.