Re: PostGIS in a commercial project

On 22/10/11 02:53, Eduardo Morras wrote:
> At 09:26 21/10/2011, Thomas Kellerer wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> we are using PostgreSQL in our projects and would like to integrate
>> PostGIS as well.
>>
>> Now PostGIS is licensed under the GPL and I wonder if we can use it in
>> a commercial (customer specific) project then.
>> The source code will not be made open source, but of course the
>> customer will get the source code.
>>
>> Is it still OK to use the GPL licensed PostGIS in this case?
>> Is that then considered a derivative work because the application will
>> not work without PostGIS?
>
> If it's pure GPL, then postgresql is automagically relicenced to GPL,
> because postgresql allows relicencing and GPL force it to be GPL. Your
> source code must be in GPL too. Remember, it's a virus licence and has
> the same problem that Midas king had.

I meant to reply to this earlier, but was hoping you meant it as a joke
given the Midas reference.

Your statement is incorrect. PostgreSQL is not "relicensed" to GPL in
any way. GPL requirements are transitive, sure, but they don't *change*
the license of linked code, they just require you to distribute it under
terms compatible with the GPL which in practice means no more
restrictive than the GPL.

Note the NUMEROUS CLOSED SOURCE COMMERCIAL TOOLS THAT WORK WITH PostGIS.
Were your statement true, they would not be possible.

Notably, linking PostGIS to the PostgreSQL server can have no effect on
the terms of use or license of libpq, let alone separately distributed
adapters like PgODBC, PgJDBC (which doesn't even use libpq!) etc, or on
programs using PostgreSQL via those adapters.

Again, I strongly recommend that the original poster ask the PostGIS
people about this, rather than relying on speculation from people who
don't specialise in licensing (myself included) or work on/with a GPL
project themselves. The PostGIS folks will get this question a lot, so
much so that I'm astounded there doesn't seem to be anything in the FAQ
about it. They'll certainly have a good answer if you ask them on their
mailing list or via irc://chat.freenode.net/postgis .

You can see on the commercial support projects list here
(http://www.refractions.net/products/postgis/support/) that there are
projects using PostGIS in commercial, closed-source settings.

Personally, I think it'd be _very_ helpful if you did publish source
code, even if it were under a more restrictive license that (say)
prevents its commercial use. I get really frustrated when I have to work
with products I don't have source code and debug binaries for. [Yes,
Adobe, I'm looking at you and your buggy products.] That said, I see no
evidence of any *obligation* to do so and plenty of evidence that
theres' no such obligation.

The lesson here: for licensing questions, don't ask a mailing list full
of people who aren't even part of the project whose license you're
interested in.

--
Craig Ringer