Re: [HACKERS] PostgreSQL Licence: GNU/GPL

mlw wrote:
> alavoor wrote:
> >
> > Is is possible to add GNU/GPL licence to the next
> > release of the pgsql in addition to the UCB licence.
> >
> > The UCB licence applies to old code several years ago,
> > but by law it is required to include it forever with
> > pgsql.
> >
> > I am proposing that in addition to UCB, all the new
> > code added/changed after the UCB code must be covered
> > under GNU/GPL.
> >
> > Gnu/GPL is the best licensing scheme for open source
> > products.
>
> Don't go there man. It is a long discussion and many people do not share your
> views.

At the great risk of causing chaos, let me chime in on this. First, in
the past we have hidden behind the story that we can't change our
license, which I don' think is true. We could add GPL on top of the BSD
license and therefore someone wanting to make a proprietary version of
PostgreSQL would have to start with today's code. However all future
submitters would have to agree to GPL for their new code.

However, we clearly don't have unanimous agreement on using GPL so I
would like to address this in an FAQ item to get it more concrete. What
do people think of this summary:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

We currently have a BSD license, the archetypal open-source license.
The GPL is similar to BSD, except that it has certain anti-closed source
(proprietary) restrictions. Many PostgreSQL developers question the
need for such restrictions and we therefore will continue with the BSD
license for the for-seeable future.

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