Re: reg license implications in implementing/using the JDBC spec

On 28 September 2016 at 20:44, Prasad Varakur <varakur(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> Hi,
> I am trying to understand how far the pgsql-jdbc driver is compliant with
> the JDBC-spec license. First couple of pages of the spec has license terms:
>
> http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/jcp/jdbc-4_1-mrel-
> spec/jdbc4.1-fr-spec.pdf
> - clause(1) seems to grant license for evaluation purpose
> - clause(2) seems to grant license for compliant implementations as
> defined by (a)-(c), which has to be a fully compliant implementation which
> can pass the JDBC-TCK.
>
>
> As I understand, the pgsql-jdbc is not evaluation, nor is a fully
> compliant implementation. Documentation also states, it has postgres
> specific extensions to the spec.
>
> With this, my Qs are:
> 1) Is pgsql-jdbc a legitimate implementation of JDBC-spec, conforming to
> the JDBC license terms? If so, how?
>
Not sure, nobody has ever asked this question before. I would argue that
the pgsql-jdbc driver existed long before this license, but I'm not a
lawyer.

> 2) Does postgres-JDBC Group obtained special license from
> Oracle/jdbc-Spec-owner for this implementation of pgsql-jdbc.
>
no

> 3) Are users of pgsql-jdbc also considered violating jdbc-spec-license
> terms, if pgsql-jdbc is not a legitimate implementation of the JDBC-spec.
>
again not sure.

I do know that Oracle is well aware of the driver and has never made
mention of it.

Why do you want to know ?

Dave Cramer

davec(at)postgresintl(dot)com
www.postgresintl.com