Re: Berkeley DB license

At 10:41 AM 5/17/00 +1000, Chris Bitmead wrote:

> Can you explain in technical terms what "surface our interfaces" means?

Basically, it would not be permitted to write trivial wrappers around
Berkeley DB functions like db_open, simply to permit applications other
than PostgreSQL to call them to get around Sleepycat's license terms
for Berkeley DB.

I realize that we can argue at length about what constitutes a "trivial
wrapper," and how much gray area there is around that. We'd write the
agreement so that there was plenty of room for you to improve PostgreSQL
without violating the terms. You'll be able to review the agreement and
to get legal advice on it.

Let's hold the legal discussion until we decide whether we need to have
it at all. If there's just no technical fit, we can save the trouble
and expense of drafting a letter agreement and haggling over terms. If
the technical fit is good, then the next hurdle will be the agreement,
and we can focus on that with our full attention.

mike