Dave Held wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Marian POPESCU [mailto:softexpert@libertysurf.fr]
> > Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 8:06 AM
> > To: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
> > Subject: Re: [HACKERS] ARC patent
> >
> > >>>Neil Conway <neilc@samurai.com> writes:
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>>FYI, IBM has applied for a patent on ARC (AFAICS the
> > >>>>patent application is still pending, although the USPTO
> > >>>>site is a little hard to grok):
> > >>>
> > >>>Ugh. We could hope that the patent wouldn't be granted,
> > >>>but I think it unlikely, unless Jan is aware of prior art
> > >>>(like a publication predating the filing date). I fear we'll
> > >>>have to change or remove that code.
>
> Why not just ask IBM for a free license first? After all, they put
> 1,000+ patents in the public domain or something, didn't they? I
> realize that they might use this technology in DB2, and don't want
> to encourage competitors. But IBM seems a lot more friendly to OSS
> than most companies, and it doesn't seem like it would hurt to ask.
> At the worst they say "no" and you just proceed as you would have
> originally.
The problem is that they would have to license all commercial,
closed-source distributions of PostgreSQL too, and I doubt they would do
that.
-- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610)
359-1001+ If your life is a hard drive, | 13 Roberts Road + Christ can be your backup. | Newtown Square,
Pennsylvania19073
