[reSIProcate] [reTurn-devel] license for Berkley DB used by repro project.

[Scott Godin]

This posting landed on the wrong mailing list, so I've CC'd a
more appropriate one.

I am not a licensing expert, but the following is my interpretation of the
Berkely DB licensing:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepycat_license

The following statement from the Sleepycat license wiki page, seems pretty
clear:
The license is a strong form of
copyleft<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft>because it mandates
that redistributions in any form not only include the
source code of Berkeley DB <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_DB>, but
also "any accompanying software that uses the DB software". It is possible
to circumvent this strict licensing policy through the purchase of a
commercial software license from Oracle
Corporation<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation>consisting
of terms and conditions which are negotiated at the time of
sale. This is an example of dual
licensing<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_license>
.

my opinions inline....

Scott


On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:09 AM, Ankit Jalota <ankit.jalota at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I have some concers about the license of "Berkley DB",
> From the snippet below from Wikkipedia page
>
> "Oracle Corporation makes versions 2.0 and higher of Berkeley DB available
> under a dual license <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_license>.[13]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_DB#cite_note-12>This license is a 2-clause BSD
> license <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_license> with an additional
> copyleft <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft> clause similar to the GNU
> GPL <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License> version 2's
> Section 3, requiring source code of an application using Berkeley DB to be
> made available for a nominal fee.
>
> Thus, the license depends on how a particular application that uses
> Berkeley DB is distributed to the public. Software that is not distributed
> can use the Sleepycat License<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepycat_License>,
> as can free and open source software<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open_source_software>.
> Proprietary software <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software>can use Berkeley DB only under a commercial license agreement between
> Oracle and the application's publisher."
>
> It looks like that Resiprocate is using a BSD like license for Berkley DB.
>
> My Concerns are as following if I use repro with Berkley DB:
>
> 1. If I use then, do I need to open the sorce code of my application also?.
>
[Scott]  I believe you need to either open source your software or purchase
a commercial license from Oracle.

> 2. Can I sell my Application ?
>
[Scott]  I believe so, as long as you do one of the above options.

> 3. Is there a way to replace Berkley BD?
>
[Scott]  The database use in repro is abstracted out at the class level.
 In fact there is also a MySQL implementation in SVN, enabled via
preprocessor defines..

> Thanks in advance.
>
> Ankit
>
>
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> reTurn-devel at resiprocate.org
> List Archive: http://resiprocate.org/archive/return-devel/
>
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