Re: [GENERAL] PostgreSQL Licence: GNU/GPL

Ross Reedstrom <reedstrm@rice.edu>

From: "Ross J. Reedstrom" <reedstrm@rice.edu>
To: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
Cc: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>, "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@hub.org>, Vince Vielhaber <vev@michvhf.com>, Brent Verner <brent@rcfile.org>, mlw <markw@mohawksoft.com>, alavoor <alavoor@yahoo.com>, pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org, pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Date: 2002-01-21T23:15:44Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 04:12:58PM -0500, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> Bruce Momjian writes:
> 
> > > > Many PostgreSQL developers past and present are uncomfortable with
> > > > restrictions imposed by the GPL.  The PostgreSQL project always has
> > > > and will continue to remain under the BSD license alone.
> > >
> > > This one is perfect ... Bruce?  I really leaves no openings, no?
> >
> > It is hard to argue with this wording either.  Let's see how people
> > vote.
> 
> Besides the poor grammar in the second sentence, it's also incorrect,
> because the whole point of the BSD license to some people is that it is
> not "alone" under the BSD license but can be relicensed in other ways.
> 
> I think we should just scrap it and get on with our lives.  There are
> about 2 questions a year about the license issues, which does not qualify
> it as "FAQ" anyway.
> 

The one thing that _does_ come up is not 'change your license to GPL' but
"here's my GPLed code: can it get into the main tree?" I liked the version
that mentioned 'contributors must BSD license to get it into the main tree'
since that's the principle Q for people we care about: potential coders.
Anyone else who wants to argue licenses can be safely ignored.

Ross