Bug#987013: Release goal proposal: Remove Berkeley DB
Thanks for your explanation.
Gerardo
Il giorno ven 16 apr 2021 alle ore 20:09 Bastian Blank
<waldi@debian.org> ha scritto:
>
> Hi Gerardo
>
> On Fri, Apr 16, 2021 at 10:30:08AM +0200, Gerardo Ballabio wrote:
> > Bastian Blank wrote:
> > > Berkeley DB was relicensed to AGPLv3 almost eight years ago.
> > Sorry but I don't understand, why is that a problem?
> > I believe the AGPL (you mean the GNU Affero General Public License,
> > right?) is a free license. Is it not?
>
> Yes, the AGPLv3 is a free license.
>
> However the freeness is not the problem here. The problem is the AGPL,
> it's extended source provisions, the incompatibility with the license of
> existing software and also a bit "Oracle".
>
> The AGPL was created for network services. It requires to provide the
> source to anyone accessing it via network. So this is tailored for the
> services themselves, not arbitrary libraries deep within the dependency
> chain. There where a lot of discussions about this problems at the
> time.[1]
>
> So even if we would switch to a current version of Berkeley DB, we would
> need to do the same work to make sure every software that uses it is in
> compliance with the AGPL. AFAIK every distribution either stayed with
> BDB 5.3 and often just removed it's use as much as possible or just
> killed it alltogether.
>
> Regards,
> Bastian
>
> [1]: https://lwn.net/Articles/557820/
> --
> If a man had a child who'd gone anti-social, killed perhaps, he'd still
> tend to protect that child.
> -- McCoy, "The Ultimate Computer", stardate 4731.3
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