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September 10, 2026Information Systems JournalOpen Access

Freeriding and Rebellion: An Investigation of Open Source Vendor Relicensing and Member Hard Forking Events

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Authors

DFDawn FosterMGMatt Germonprez

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Overview

Netnographic study reveals how freeriding claims drive unilateral relicensing and member rebellion across major software projects, highlighting shifting governance and collective action dynamics.

Key Points

  • Investigate collective action threats and governance practices associated with vendor-driven open-source relicensing and subsequent community hard forks.
  • Conducted a netnographic qualitative analysis across three prominent open-source projects: Elasticsearch (to OpenSearch), Terraform (to OpenTofu), and Redis (to Valkey).
  • Analyzed vendor communications, community discussions, and boundary regulation shifts during relicensing and hard-forking transitions.
  • Freeriding accusations serve as the primary vendor justification for unilateral, non-incremental changes to project boundary regulations.
  • Vendor-driven relicensing triggers community rebellion, prompting developers to initiate hard forks and reposition their long-term project engagement.

Cite This Study

Foster et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6aa27a9f58559d80afc734fchttps://doi.org/10.1111/isj.70060
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