Redis Labs & the tragedy of the Commons Clause

(en)In August 2018, Redis Labs relicensed a number of AGPL-licensed Redis modules with the "Commons Clause" amendment on the grounds that it prevents abuse and therefore ensures the sustainability of its development. As this renders the software no-longer free and open source, GNU/Linux distributions such as Debian and Fedora are unable to ship Redis Labs' versions of the affected modules to their users. This talk from a long-time (2009) Redis user & developer will outline the history, background & response to this flavour of license, as well explain how this it at odds with communities in which they participate in and are ultimately are a short-sighted & retrograde step for the companies and individuals that are advocating for them. Furthermore, this talk will ask some thought-provoking questions about how the the conversation around "sustainability" in open source is being co-opted by foregrounding of financial elements to the detriment of the principles & people that have so clearly and demonstratively served us so well in the past four decades.