Fw: PostgreSQL mission statement?

Dear Team,

This sounds good to me. Especially the comment about software patents.
Software source code can be written with different variable names and
slightly different coding styles. But when a specific function needs
implementation, often there is only one logical approach. If that approach
is patented, then it becomes "un-usable" by most programmers. It is
essentially by nature the same thing as allowing artists to patent certain
shades of color, because they have used it first in a famous painting. The
idea strikes me as completely ludicrous.

However, I am all for giving credit where credit is due. I like to see
copyright notices and references to the GPL in Linux oriented code. It
gives me a better "feel" for those "upon whose shoulders I stand".

Arthur

----- Original Message -----
From: "mlw" <markw(at)mohawksoft(dot)com>
To: <jm(dot)poure(at)freesurf(dot)fr>
Cc: "David Terrell" <dbt(at)meat(dot)net>; "PostgreSQL-development"
<pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] PostgreSQL mission statement?

> Jean-Michel POURE wrote:
> >
> > The PostgreSQL community is committed to creating and maintaining the
best,
> > most reliable, open-source multi-purpose standards based database, and
with
> > it, promote free(dom) and open source software world wide.
> >
> > I hope you don't mind writing "free(dom)" with the idea of fighting
patent
> > abuses.
>
> No, the mission statement is about what the postgresql group, as a whole,
is
> all about.
>
> I know it seems silly to have such a thing, but really, the more I read on
this
> discussion, the more it seems like it is a useful "call to arms" for
developers
> and users alike.
>
> Now, I do not wish to have a manifesto, but a short and sweet "this is who
we
> are, and this is what we do" could be a positive thing.
>
> P.S. I think every software engineer worth anything should fight software
> patents. If Donald Knuth didn't patent his algorithms, practically none of
us
> deserve patents. I mean seriously, most of the software patents are
trivial and
> obvious. Knuth did something, most of us only build on his work.
>
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