Erik Wienhold <ewie@ewie.name> writes: > On 23/03/2023 04:34 CET Ian Lawrence Barwick <barwick@gmail.com> wrote: >> Also not a lawyer, but the full sentence is:
>>> Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its >>> documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written agreement is >>> hereby granted
>> which in my non-lawyerly interpretation means anyone copying, modifying and >> distributing the documentation may do so without paying a fee. A distributor >> could charge what they like.
> I know the fee clause from licenses such as Zero-Clause BSD, ISC License, and > GPLv3. They state "with or without fee" or "gratis or for a fee" pertaining to > the distribution. That's also how I interpret the fee clause in the PostgreSQL > license with the difference that it does not permit taking a fee.
No, I agree with Ian: our license says that the Postgres project does not require a fee. It does not say that someone redistributing the material can't charge for their efforts. It would obviously be ridiculous to expect someone to print a multi-thousand-page book and then give it away for free.
I do question the practicality and environmental cost of putting such short-lived material on dead trees, though ...