I’m thinking of building a product on top of Redash that I would sell closed-source (both as a SaaS solution and as an on-prem solution that I would install on my clients servers). The Redash license here: redash/LICENSE at master · getredash/redash · GitHub seems to suggest this is fine as long as I include the copyright notice but I just wanted to double check my understanding. Is there anything I should be aware of before moving forward? To be honest it seems a bit strange and very generous that I would be able to just take this free software and modify & monetize however I see fit and resell it. Also, if I use it now is there any risk later in the future if Redash decides to be more restrictive I won’t be able to continue to sell my product?
Strange, perhaps, but this is how the BSD license works. There are lots of software tools that use this license including Google Chrome! Which is why Microsoft was able to fork Chrome and make their Edge, and likewise the Brave browser. It’s also the reason why Amazon has their wildly successful ElasticSearch tool that’s broadly incompatible with the pre-existing open source release
This forum can’t give legal advice. Speak with a solicitor if you’re very concerned about it. Maybe this SO answer can shed some light on your situation.
BSD license gives power but in return asks for responsibility, mainly in contributing back to the project, in any way that contributes to its sustainability.
I would argue that such a service should approach the main author of the open source product assuring there is some form of compensation even if small.
This is a larger discussion, and has prompt some very high profile open source products to change license to server Server Side Public License (SSPL) or some derivation, and away from “true” open source licenses. You can easily find many discussions and insightful articles about it.
I don’t have any relationship with redash other than being an open source user, but am mindful of the fact this should be a give and take relationship as much as possible. Otherwise you are just a taker and risking the project disapearing or taking back it’s decision to be open source.
