Re: [GENERAL] Re: [HACKERS] proposed improvements to PostgreSQLlicense

2000-07-04 Thread Thomas Good

On Mon, 3 Jul 2000, Peter Eisentraut wrote:

  and ensuring that the code stays open source in perpetuity.
 No, that's what the GPL does.

This is only an end user's reply but here goes...

And I feel alot more comfortable with the GPL as an end user.  I *trust*
Richard Stallman...alot more than any johnny-come-lately.  Peter's point
about the longevity of the Bersekeley licence is well taken.

 To my knowledge, the BSD license has been used in one form or another for
 at least 20 years and neither has any contributor ever been sued for
 liability, nor was there any court case that concluded that the BSD
 license is worth anything at all, nor has the developer or commercial
 acceptance of any product ever been affected by this "untight" license.
 
  [To be integrated with the software in such a way that this license
  must be seen before downloading can occur]
 
 That's funny...

Actually, that's frightening...more than a bit reminiscent of the old Bill.
I've invested *alot* of time in writing code that wraps around Pg.
Because of its OSS licence and Berkeley lineage.

Perhaps the end user should also have to enter a key to do the build.
And subsequently be pestered to register online for 'free updates'...
Maybe code could be worked in to reach out on the network to see if any 
unauthorized binaries are in use.

  The foregoing shall be governed by and construed under the laws of
  the State of Virginia.
 
 The recurring theme throughout this email was that Great Bridge has
 apparently not appreciated that PostgreSQL land extends beyond the borders
 of the U.S. of A. Maybe your 32 focus groups in major U.S. cities wanted
 the license changed like this, but I'll bet lunch that 32 out of 32 focus
 groups in major European cities will look with extreme suspicion at
 anything with "laws of the State of XXX" attached to it.

 Until they realize that the laws of Virginia don't apply to them. Or to
 Canada, where hub.org is located these days.

Ah, The Old Dominion.  In NYC we have some of the toughest gun laws in
the US.  But they are largely ineffective (aside from blocking honest
citizens access to sporting firearms).  You see all sorts of guns flow in
illegally from states that don't enforce their laws.  Like Virginia.
The end result is that hospital ERs continue to treat gunshot wounds.

Rewriting the GPL or BSD licence sounds like reinventing the wheel...
Unless of course there is another agenda.


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Thomas Good  tomg@ { admin | q8 } .nrnet.org
IS Coordinator / DBA Phone: 718-354-5528 
 Fax:   718-354-5056  

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Re: [GENERAL] Re: [HACKERS] proposed improvements to PostgreSQLlicense

2000-07-04 Thread eisentrp

On Tue, 4 Jul 2000, Tom Lane wrote:

 Chris and Peter may not feel that they need to worry about the
 sillinesses of the American legal system, but those of us who are
 within its reach do need to worry about it.

I grant you that, but as Chris pointed out the proposed change may
actually have a net negative effect, namely bringing those outside the
reach of the American legal system withing it, and at the same time not
doing anything for other silly legal systems.

I, and I think most others, don't have a problem with repeating the
existing boilerplate with s/Regents of the University of
California/various contributors/g.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut  Sernanders vaeg 10:115
[EMAIL PROTECTED]   75262 Uppsala
http://yi.org/peter-e/Sweden