Re: User locks code - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

> Tom Lane wrote:
> > 
> > I definitely agree with Vadim here: it's fairly silly that the
> > contrib userlock code is GPL'd, when it consists only of a few dozen
> > lines of wrapper for the real functionality that's in the main backend.
> 

I was incorrect in something I said to Vadim.  I said stored procedures
would have to be released if linked against a GPL'ed backend.  They have
to be released only if they are in C or another object file linked into
the backend.  PlpgSQL or SQL functions don't have to be released because
their code is "loaded" into the backend as a script, not existing in the
backend binary or required for the backend to run.

> Maybe it makes Massimo feel good ? It seems a worhty reason to me, as 
> he has contributed a lot of useful stuff over the time.

Yes, that is probably it.  The GPL doesn't give anything to users, it
takes some control away from users and gives it to the author of the
code.

> I really think that mixing licences inside one program is bad, if not
> for 
> any other reason then for confusing people and making them have
> discussions 
> like this.

Yes, the weird part is that the BSD license is so lax (don't sue us)
that it is the addition of the GPL that changes the affect of the
license.  If you added a BSD license to a GPL'ed piece of code, the
effect would be near zero.

> > Besides, anyone who actually wanted to use the userlock code would need
> > only to write their own wrapper functions to get around the GPL license.
> 
> This is a part of copyright law that eludes me - can i write a
> replacement
> function for something so simple that it can essentially be done in one 
> way only (like incrementing a value by one) ?

Sure, if you don't cut and paste the code line by line, or retype the
code while staring at the previous version.  That is how Berkeley got
unix-free version of the BSD operating system.  However, the few places
where they lazily copied got them in trouble.

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