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Re: Berkeley DB curious licensing practice



2002-10-31-13:53:24 Sean 'Shaleh' Perry:
> right.  Now, the GPL *only* applies to the recipient of a binary.  If that 
> binary never leaves my company no one outside my company has the right to the 
> source code.

But, if I'm obliged to distribute my in-house app in-house with an
open source license slathered over it, anyone who does receive it
(in-house) is completely legally free to post it to the world.

If Berkeley DB came under an open source license, I'd be free to
build things that use it under absolutely any license I like, and as
long as I never published them outside my organization there'd be no
constraints on my use. So I could build something that used Berkeley
DB, my something could be strictly internal-use-only company
proprietary, and there'd be no conflict.

Berkeley DB's redefinition of "redistribute" to include copying
within an organization has made their license no longer
satisfactorily "Open Source" for my tastes; they're reserving the
right to acceptable dictate use within a single organization.

But if the Open Source Definition accepts SleepyCat's new game, I
suppose I need to find a new word for what I mean. Berkeley DB ain't
it, whatever it is.

-Bennett

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