Re: Berkeley DB 6.0 license change to AGPLv3
]] Paul Tagliamonte
> On Tue, Jul 02, 2013 at 09:44:10AM +0200, Ondřej Surý wrote:
> > Florian Weimer has correctly pointed out that Oracle has decided to change the
> > BDB 6.0 license to AGPLv3 (https://oss.oracle.com/pipermail/bdb/2013-June/
> > 000056.html). This hasn't been reflected in release tarball (probably by
> > mistake), but since the AGPLv3 is not very friendly to downstream projects, we
> > (as the Debian project) need to take a decision.
>
> What? Wait, What? What?[1]
>
> The AGPL is a DFSG free FSF approved and OSI approved free software
> license? We made a decision, it's *free software* and fit for main.
An AGPL licenced libdb isn't particularly useful for us, though. It'd
mean distributing a fair amount of software including exim, postfix,
squid, webalizer, dovecot and many other servers under the AGPL, which
would mean patching them so you could download the source code through
them.
AGPL is a sometimes usable licence for webapps. It's completely
unusable for a library like libdb.
I think we should just keep libdb5.3 until a suitable replacement shows
up.
> Again, why do you plan on removing free software from main due to a
> change in license?
I don't think he's suggested removing it?
--
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are
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