Thread: Publishing Postgres Manual as a book

> On 23/03/2023 02:35 CET Siddharth Jain <siddhsql@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The Postgres Manual is available online as a PDF but I think having it in a
> book form could be useful to some.
>
> Is it legal for me to publish the manual as a book?

IANAL, but I'd say yes as long as you don't take a fee.  The legal notice of
the documentation grants distribution of the documentation "for any purpose,
without fee". [0]  Also mind the trademark policy. [1]

[0] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/legalnotice.html
[1] https://www.postgresql.org/about/policies/trademarks/

--
Erik

2023年3月23日(木) 12:23 Erik Wienhold <ewie@ewie.name>:
>
> > On 23/03/2023 02:35 CET Siddharth Jain <siddhsql@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > The Postgres Manual is available online as a PDF but I think having it in a
> > book form could be useful to some.
> >
> > Is it legal for me to publish the manual as a book?
>
> IANAL, but I'd say yes as long as you don't take a fee.  The legal notice of
> the documentation grants distribution of the documentation "for any purpose,
> without fee".

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. AFAIR the documentation has previously been
published in book form, though as it runs to about 3,000 A4 pages now,
the logistics are non-trivial.

Regards

Ian Barwick

2023年3月23日(木) 12:34 Ian Lawrence Barwick <barwick@gmail.com>:
>
> 2023年3月23日(木) 12:23 Erik Wienhold <ewie@ewie.name>:
> >
> > > On 23/03/2023 02:35 CET Siddharth Jain <siddhsql@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > The Postgres Manual is available online as a PDF but I think having it in a
> > > book form could be useful to some.
> > >
> > > Is it legal for me to publish the manual as a book?
> >
> > IANAL, but I'd say yes as long as you don't take a fee.  The legal notice of
> > the documentation grants distribution of the documentation "for any purpose,
> > without fee".
>
> 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. AFAIR the documentation has previously been
> published in book form

e.g.: https://www.amazon.com/PostgreSQL-9-0-Official-Documentation-Language/dp/1596822465

> though as it runs to about 3,000 A4 pages now,  the logistics are non-trivial.

The PostgreSQL 15 A4 PDF has 2854 pages.

Regards

Ian Barwick

> On 23/03/2023 04:34 CET Ian Lawrence Barwick <barwick@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 2023年3月23日(木) 12:23 Erik Wienhold <ewie@ewie.name>:
> >
> > > On 23/03/2023 02:35 CET Siddharth Jain <siddhsql@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > The Postgres Manual is available online as a PDF but I think having it in a
> > > book form could be useful to some.
> > >
> > > Is it legal for me to publish the manual as a book?
> >
> > IANAL, but I'd say yes as long as you don't take a fee.  The legal notice of
> > the documentation grants distribution of the documentation "for any purpose,
> > without fee".
>
> 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.

> AFAIR the documentation has previously been published in book form, though as
> it runs to about 3,000 A4 pages now, the logistics are non-trivial.

It's also out of date pretty quickly with four releases a year.

--
Erik

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 ...

            regards, tom lane

Siddharth Jain <siddhsql@gmail.com> writes:
> to follow up, does Postgres have any official legal contact person / email
> address? i can't find any on the website.

Typically, legal questions should be sent to the core team.

(To clarify: although I am a core team member, my previous response
was not speaking for core, just myself.)

            regards, tom lane