Thread: Re: License question[VASCL:A1077160A86]
Aaron Glenn wrote: >On 10/4/05, Richmond Dyes <rdyes@monroehosp.org> wrote: >> From my understanding of the license for Postgresql, there is no >> licensing fees as long as you are not selling it yourself for a profit. >Completely incorrect. You can do whatever you like with PostgreSQL; >you just can't sue anyone when things go south. _and_ you need to preserve the copyright notices. i think that is pretty much it -- you can't sue, you need to preserve the copyrights, and other than that, have at it. richard
On 10/4/05, Welty, Richard <richard.welty@bankofamerica.com> wrote: > Aaron Glenn wrote: > >Completely incorrect. You can do whatever you like with PostgreSQL; > >you just can't sue anyone when things go south. > > _and_ you need to preserve the copyright notices. excellent point.
On Wednesday 05 October 2005 06:41, Aaron Glenn wrote: > On 10/4/05, Welty, Richard <richard.welty@bankofamerica.com> wrote: > > Aaron Glenn wrote: > > >Completely incorrect. You can do whatever you like with PostgreSQL; > > >you just can't sue anyone when things go south. > > > > _and_ you need to preserve the copyright notices. > > excellent point. > If I was to develop a 'C' project that only used the libpg.so library and the rest was my own stuff would I need to preserve the copyright to somehow? I wouldn't be distributing any source at all just my executable and the library. Regards Neil
On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 09:49:06PM +1000, Neil Dugan wrote: > > If I was to develop a 'C' project that only used the libpg.so library and the > rest was my own stuff would I need to preserve the copyright to somehow? Yes, because libpg.so is licensed under the BSD license. Note that you can do this in a COPYRIGHT file. It just has to be "in all copies", whatever that means. People are actually slightly oversimplifying, because when you distribute you also have to distribute two paragraphs. The license is available, among other places, from this URL: http://www.postgresql.org/about/licence It has _got_ to be the easiest piece of legalese you'll ever encounter. Read it, and do what it says. There's no long preamble about rights; there's no provision that you've accepted it just by having installed the software that was necessary to read the EULA; there's no provision that breaking the Magic Plastic Wrap has donated your 1st born to the fires below; there's no provision that, even though you just paid a million dollars, you can't get your money back if it doesn't work. But it does say that, if you use the software, you have to warn your users somehow that some of the code is written by someone else, and that it's not UC's fault if it doesn't work (so you can't sue them). A -- Andrew Sullivan | ajs@crankycanuck.ca The plural of anecdote is not data. --Roger Brinner
On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 04:14:03PM -0400, Andrew Sullivan wrote: > On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 09:49:06PM +1000, Neil Dugan wrote: > > > > If I was to develop a 'C' project that only used the libpg.so library and the > > rest was my own stuff would I need to preserve the copyright to somehow? > > Yes, because libpg.so is licensed under the BSD license. Note that > you can do this in a COPYRIGHT file. It just has to be "in all > copies", whatever that means. AFAIK, this would only apply if he was actually distributing libpq.so, which would be a bad thing for technical reasons anyway. > People are actually slightly oversimplifying, because when you > distribute you also have to distribute two paragraphs. > > The license is available, among other places, from this URL: > > http://www.postgresql.org/about/licence > > It has _got_ to be the easiest piece of legalese you'll ever Not easy enough to avoid confusion though. :) -- Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant jnasby@pervasive.com Pervasive Software http://pervasive.com work: 512-231-6117 vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf cell: 512-569-9461
On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 05:34:25PM -0500, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> > Yes, because libpg.so is licensed under the BSD license. Note that
> > you can do this in a COPYRIGHT file. It just has to be "in all
> > copies", whatever that means.
>
> AFAIK, this would only apply if he was actually distributing libpq.so,
> which would be a bad thing for technical reasons anyway.
Well, yes, except I suppose I sort of thought it was going to be
linked statically or something -- how do you rely on your users
having the library installed? But now that I think about it, I
suppose this is really a question prompted by TheirDB's decision to
understand "derivative program" in a mighty extended way. I seem to
be echoing Emily a lot these days. "Never mind."
A
--
Andrew Sullivan | ajs@crankycanuck.ca
The whole tendency of modern prose is away from concreteness.
--George Orwell
On Thursday 06 October 2005 08:34, Jim C. Nasby wrote: > On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 04:14:03PM -0400, Andrew Sullivan wrote: > > On Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 09:49:06PM +1000, Neil Dugan wrote: > > > If I was to develop a 'C' project that only used the libpg.so library > > > and the rest was my own stuff would I need to preserve the copyright to > > > somehow? > > > > Yes, because libpg.so is licensed under the BSD license. Note that > > you can do this in a COPYRIGHT file. It just has to be "in all > > copies", whatever that means. > > AFAIK, this would only apply if he was actually distributing libpq.so, > which would be a bad thing for technical reasons anyway. > I thought it would only be needed if you where distributing the source for Postgresql. Does the copyright get distributed with the binary Debian packages? I haven't been able to find it on my Linux box. If it is, I would probably have to put a chapter explaining that it only applies to the libpq.so part of the executable. > > People are actually slightly oversimplifying, because when you > > distribute you also have to distribute two paragraphs. > > > > The license is available, among other places, from this URL: > > > > http://www.postgresql.org/about/licence > > > > It has _got_ to be the easiest piece of legalese you'll ever > > Not easy enough to avoid confusion though. :)
On Wed, Oct 12, 2005 at 07:26:48PM +1000, Neil Dugan wrote: > I thought it would only be needed if you where distributing the source for > Postgresql. > > Does the copyright get distributed with the binary Debian packages? > I haven't been able to find it on my Linux box. Yes it does, in all binary packages. After all, you need to know the terms of the GPL even if you only receive the binaries, given that the licence of the binaries is the same as the source (derived works and such). If you look in /usr/share/doc/postgresql/copyright you find: - Copyright notice for entire distribution - Copyright notice for regex code - Copyright notice for something copied from Tcl > If it is, I would probably have to put a chapter explaining that it only > applies to the libpq.so part of the executable. The licence needs to be provided with anything you provide. If you provide the backend or a frontend or anything. If there is no licence then technically you're not allowed to have it. Only the author doesn't need a licence to distribute. It's a block of text which needs to be somewhere in the package, not exactly an onerous requirement. Although, being BSD licenced you could send it with any licence you like. The point is, you need to say *somewhere* what it is. -- Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org> http://svana.org/kleptog/ > Patent. n. Genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. A patent is a > tool for doing 5% of the work and then sitting around waiting for someone > else to do the other 95% so you can sue them.
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On Wed, 2005-10-12 at 19:26 +1000, Neil Dugan wrote: > I thought it would only be needed if you where distributing the source for > Postgresql. > > Does the copyright get distributed with the binary Debian packages? > I haven't been able to find it on my Linux box. The copyright of all Debian packages is found in /usr/share/doc/<package>/copyright -- Oliver Elphick olly@lfix.co.uk Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver GPG: 1024D/A54310EA 92C8 39E7 280E 3631 3F0E 1EC0 5664 7A2F A543 10EA ======================================== Do you want to know God? http://www.lfix.co.uk/knowing_god.html