Re: proposed improvements to PostgreSQL license

Philip Warner wrote:
>
> At 10:19 6/07/00 -0400, Ron Peterson wrote:
> >
> >This has happened in PostgreSQL's own history. How long did it take for
> >the project to get picked up again? How long did it take for the people
> >who picked it up to familiarize themselves with the code? How long did
> >it take before the community at large developed any confidence in the
> >project's viability? How much talent was lost? How many ideas were
> >lost?
> >
> >I believe developers assurances about their desire to maintain
> >PostgreSQL as an open source project are sincere. But I am not going to
> >continue investing my time in PostgreSQL unless those assurances are
> >backed by contractually binding verbage.
>
> Short of employing the core developers directly, and giving them good
> enough conditions to ensure that they stay with you, I don't think you can
> acheieve your ends. No license change will help. All a licence does is
> tells you what *you* can do with the software.
>
> GPL or BSD, if someone buys up the core developers, their replacements will
> have a steep learning curve. Your only choice here is to invest local
> talent from your company in the development project so that if the core
> developers do leave, then there is a higher chance of a quick uptake.
>
> Or have I missed something? Did you have some kind of "contractually
> binding verbage" in mind?

Technically, you're right, of course. There are no absolutes here, just
probabilities. Developers will come and go in either case. But in
these days of multi-billion dollar mergers and acquisisitons, I would
prefer team as a whole be working under a license that would discourage
them from taking the code private. Losing any of the developers would
be a loss. But losing a significant fraction of them could be tragic.

By the way, I hope I'm not coming across as saying "thanks for all your
hard work, now go eat peanuts." I have great appreciation for what
PostgreSQL has become, and for the developers who have made it so. That
is why I keep at this tired argument. I would like to know that this
project will continue in a manner that benefits the little people, not
just big corporate commercial interests.

Perhaps some company _would_ like to pay the developers mucho dinero to
continue PostgreSQL development. In fact I really hope so. I would
just like to know that if that happened, there would be no obstacle to
returning privately developed code to the public domain.

Great Bridge has announced their intention to sell both products and
services. What are the products?

I'm going to bow out of this discussion. (applause!) Sorry if it
sounds old and tired to the veterans among us. I'm a little green in
the gills and I appreciate your sufferance.

________________________
Ron Peterson
rpeterson(at)yellowbank(dot)com