Обсуждение: PostrgreSQL Commercial restrictions?
Hello.
I have been reading the -http://opensource.org/licenses/postgresql- to know if i can use PostgreSQL in a Privative Closed Commercial Software (The worst of the worst :P ). in the company where i work.
Is there any restriction or limit to do it.?
I have been reading the -http://opensource.org/licenses/postgresql- to know if i can use PostgreSQL in a Privative Closed Commercial Software (The worst of the worst :P ). in the company where i work.
Is there any restriction or limit to do it.?
I am not a lawyer and cannot evaluate your risk profile and usage but: Simply connecting to, creating objects, and running queries against PostgreSQL does not encumber your external application at all. The database schema you create (the objects inside the database) is not affected. Deploying PostgreSQL may be restricted but in the general case if the installation of PostgreSQL is totally independent of anything your application does you have no problem. I believe your application can cause PostgreSQL to be installed without issue as well. Where the PostgreSQL license comes into play is if you make alterations to the PostgreSQL database itself - the underlying engine implemented in C and to some degree the supporting utilities written in various languages. Anything contributed to the core PostgreSQL project becomes open-source but you are permitted to create a commercial port of PostgreSQL with proprietary code under terms different from those for the core PostgreSQL project. As your application is most likely NOT one of these ports I'll stop here. If you want better answers you need to be more open and specific with your questions. If you cannot do that on a community forum then you will need to hire a lawyer (which since you want to profit from your application you should probably do anyway). Regardless, and especially if you do not hire a lawyer, you should research other companies that provide professional PostgreSQL services as well as ports of the database to get a feel for what the PostgreSQL license has allowed them to do. In short the license is very commerce friendly and because the database is often physically and logically separate from your application (you simply use the database instead of trying to offer database functionality directly to your users) the degree of encumbering that the database places on the application is generally minimal if any at all. David J. -- View this message in context: http://postgresql.1045698.n5.nabble.com/PostrgreSQL-Commercial-restrictions-tp5766666p5766674.html Sent from the PostgreSQL - general mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
On 08/07/2013 08:23 AM, Eliseo Viola wrote: > Hello. > I have been reading the -http://opensource.org/licenses/postgresql- to > know if i can use PostgreSQL in a Privative Closed Commercial Software > (The worst of the worst :P ). in the company where i work. > Is there any restriction or limit to do it.? http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/FAQ#What_is_the_license_of_PostgreSQL.3F -- Adrian Klaver adrian.klaver@gmail.com
On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Eliseo Viola <eliseo.viola@vodemia.com> wrote: > I have been reading the -http://opensource.org/licenses/postgresql- to know > if i can use PostgreSQL in a Privative Closed Commercial Software (The > worst of the worst :P ). in the company where i work. > Is there any restriction or limit to do it.? I am not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice. That said, I have ever reason to believe that the licensing is the most liberal practically possible. Distributing Postgres with your proprietary application should not be a problem. -- Regards, Peter Geoghegan
On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 8:43 AM, David Johnston <polobo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Where the PostgreSQL license comes into play is if you make alterations to
the PostgreSQL database itself - the underlying engine implemented in C and
to some degree the supporting utilities written in various languages.
Anything contributed to the core PostgreSQL project becomes open-source but
you are permitted to create a commercial port of PostgreSQL with proprietary
code under terms different from those for the core PostgreSQL project. As
your application is most likely NOT one of these ports I'll stop here.
That my be true for MySQL, but I don't think the applies to PostgreSQL. Several companies have forked PostgreSQL into their own proprietary product.
Here's a nice presentation on the subject that was put together by Josh Berkus:
http://www.slideshare.net/pgconf/elephant-roads-a-tour-of-postgres-forks
http://www.slideshare.net/pgconf/elephant-roads-a-tour-of-postgres-forks
--
Regards,
Richard Broersma Jr.
On Aug 7, 2013, at 8:23 AM, Eliseo Viola <eliseo.viola@vodemia.com> wrote: > Hello. > I have been reading the -http://opensource.org/licenses/postgresql- to know if i can use PostgreSQL in a Privative ClosedCommercial Software (The worst of the worst :P ). in the company where i work. > Is there any restriction or limit to do it.? There isn't, really. It's very liberally licensed, and you're free to distribute it. However, as someone who writes "private closed commercial software" that uses postgresql as a backend I'd fairly stronglysuggest that you at least provide end users the opportunity to use their own installation of postgresql if they wantto. "Hiding" the existence of postgresql in your package doesn't magically make it as low maintenance as sqlite, so userswill still know it's there and might want to point your app at their supported, tuned installation instead. (And maywant to fire up psql to see what's in there - you'll get happier customers if you put connection info and a database schemadiagram in your docs than if you try to hide your use of a database). I no longer distribute postgresql bundled with the app at all. On platforms with decent package managers I just ship a packagethat relies on the OS-installed postgresql. For other environments I provide a package for the app, and a separatepackage with postgresql. If you do decide to distribute postgresql with your app (by bundling the enterprisedb installer as part of a windows appinstaller, say) be very careful that it's configured to not clash with a used-installed copy of postgresql. Cheers, Steve
Richard, * Richard Broersma (richard.broersma@gmail.com) wrote: > On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 8:43 AM, David Johnston <polobo@yahoo.com> wrote: > > Where the PostgreSQL license comes into play is if you make alterations to > > the PostgreSQL database itself - the underlying engine implemented in C and > > to some degree the supporting utilities written in various languages. > > Anything contributed to the core PostgreSQL project becomes open-source but > > you are permitted to create a commercial port of PostgreSQL with > > proprietary > > code under terms different from those for the core PostgreSQL project. As > > your application is most likely NOT one of these ports I'll stop here. > > > > That my be true for MySQL, but I don't think the applies to PostgreSQL. > Several companies have forked PostgreSQL into their own proprietary product. You made the same mistake I did in reading this. The statement that David made is correct, but you have to read it carefully; here it is with emphasis: "Anything *contributed* to the core PostgreSQL project becomes open-source but..." In other words, if you send us a patch and we like it and add it to PG, it becomes part of PG which is released under the BSD license. Were something submitted under some other license, it'd be hard to call it a contribution to PG and it'd be pretty unlikely to get committed anyway. Thanks, Stephen