PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix [LWN.net]

PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix

Posted Apr 12, 2005 4:54 UTC (Tue) by Anonymous1 (guest, #29218)
In reply to: PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix by dlang
Parent article: PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix

Postgres uses a BSD License and IBM is unlikely to grant everyone free
use of its patent, so there wasn't a lot of point in asking IBM for
an exception.
This might have made sense for a GPL licensed project.

(Log in to post comments)

PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix

Posted Apr 12, 2005 8:19 UTC (Tue) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

IBM is perfectly happy with BSD license. It will grant license for BSD-licensed software. Of course. "As published by OSI". Obviously.

That is: you'll get your license (with paper trail even!), but... you'll be unable to change terms of license later (and you'll be unable to make proprietary version of PostgreSQL).

FSF hacked copyright system to create copyleft. IBM hacked patent system to make non-copyleft open-source licenses copyleft as well. Pretty ingenious if you'll ask me.

Think about it: by granting big pile of patents for open source projects IBM makes "MySQL business model" possible for unrelated projects! If you are open-source developer - you can just forget about patents and hack freely: you have written license to do so. Once you'll try to make program proprietary... bam: you'll get letter with royalty demands pretty soon. Kinda defeats reason to license something under BSD license, but... Brilliant, just brilliant.

P.S. What I really do not get is why IBM waited for so long to make this move. I was sure they'll do something like this years ago, but I guess moment was wrong.

PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix

Posted Apr 12, 2005 12:11 UTC (Tue) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]

As Khim said.

IBM is perfectly happy with a BSD licence.

Read IBM's patent pledge, and read it *CAREFULLY*. Provided the software *stays* BSD, the pledge continues to apply. But change the copyright licence, and you can lose the patent licence.

That said, I do understand this conflicts with the BSD principle that anyone should be free to use the code in any way they choose (including going proprietary). But can you blame IBM for not wanting people to use their own patents against them?

Cheers,
Wol

PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix

Posted Apr 13, 2005 23:14 UTC (Wed) by alvherre (subscriber, #18730) [Link]

FYI, this LWN.net article and this comment have been quoted by ZDnet UK (including a link to the relevant PTO entry and Elein Mustain's article on the subject.)