Re: [HACKERS] Copyright

> What is quite confusing to me is that though we have copyrighted the
> code now, we don't have a statement saying what that copyright allows
> people to do with the code. And with no statement, we are basically
> doing an "all rights reserved" thing, I think, which is certainly not
> what is intended.

Here is what we have now:

PostgreSQL is Copyright © 1996-9 by the PostgreSQL Global Development
Group, and is distributed under the terms of the Berkeley license.

Postgres95 is Copyright © 1994-5 by the Regents of the University of
California. 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,
provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph and the
following two paragraphs appear in all copies.

In no event shall the University of California be liable to any party
for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages,
including lost profits, arising out of the use of this
software and its documentation, even if the University of California
has been advised of the possibility of such damage.

The University of California specifically disclaims any warranties,
including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The software
provided hereunder is on an "as-is" basis, and the University of
California has no obligations to provide maintainance, support,
updates, enhancements, or modifications.

What we may need to do is be more explicit; perhaps we should restate
the text of the Berkeley copyright but substitute another group as the
current copyright holder, asking that credit be given to the group
when using or distributing the software.

afaict that is a perfectly reasonable request to make of users of the
code, and it gives all of us open-source contributors a way to see
where our work is being used in the future. That's part of what makes
this fun...

- Thomas

--
Thomas Lockhart lockhart(at)alumni(dot)caltech(dot)edu
South Pasadena, California