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0 pointstreprinum2y ago0 comments

Ok, I was mistaken then. I thought Redis Labs folks created Redis initially.

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4 comments · 1 top-level

fmajid2y ago· 3 in thread

No, they didn't, although they misleadingly claimed to be the "Home of Redis" for a number of years. Then they hired Salvatore Sanfilippo (antirez), the author of Redis, and eventually purchased the copyright from him. Very sleazy outfit that fully deserves all the scorn poured on them.

danielovichdk2y ago

If one sells a copyright to another, how can that be considered sleazy ? Someone made the sell - to make money I presume - and another bought it, to perhaps make more money ? Seems not that out of reach ?

I don't understand the bitterness around this debate, it seems most people are frustated that they have to pay for something that was free, but at the same time, they probably made money from what was free.

I totally understand, with todays mess of maintainers not getting paid in full, that at some point, someone wants money for their work. Be it a person, a company or you doesn't matter. But right has to be right.

I think we will see a lot of this the next 10 years, simply because we cannot afford maintainers not detecting backdoors in a code-review from some bad actor.

drewdevault2y ago

To clarify, they did not purchase the copyright -- they purchased the trademark, and are using it to attempt to capture the practical value of the copyright. The copyright is by far the more valuable of the two, but they do not actually own it. Of the actual valuable object (the copyright, i.e. the codebase), about 80% was written by people outside of the employ of Redis Labs né Redis Ltd.

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fmajid2y ago

The sleaze was in falsely claiming to be the "Home of Redis" at least 2 years before actually becoming so by hiring antirez (I remember seeing their huge billboards on Bryant & 9th in San Francisco, and it rankled).

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