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Where is Berkeley DB on your system? Can you live without DB 1.85?

David LeBlanc whisper at oz.net
Sat Jun 8 13:59:29 EDT 2002 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: python-list-admin at python.org
> [mailto:python-list-admin at python.org]On Behalf Of Oleg Broytmann
> Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 4:22
> To: David LeBlanc
> Cc: skip at pobox.com; python-list at python.org
> Subject: Re: Where is Berkeley DB on your system? Can you live without
> DB 1.85?
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 01:14:59PM -0700, David LeBlanc wrote:
> > If Sleepycat will allow it, i'm all in favor of updating to the latest
> > version! However, they want money for commercial use of versions > 1.85
> > AFAIK.
>
>    They don't. You can freely incorporate BSDDB into an
> opensource project.
>    http://www.sleepycat.com/faq.html#A22
>
> Oleg.
> --
>      Oleg Broytmann            http://phd.pp.ru/            phd at phd.pp.ru
>            Programmers don't die, they just GOSUB without RETURN.

>From the Sleepycat FAQ you cite:

14. Do current Berkeley DB releases have the same license as Berkeley DB
1.85?
Here's the non-commercial license that we're using for current Berkeley DB
releases: http://www.sleepycat.com/license.net. It's different from the one
we used for Berkeley DB 1.85. Generally speaking, the difference is that the
current license for Berkeley DB requires that software using Berkeley DB be
freely redistributable if Berkeley DB is going to be redistributed. If
Berkeley DB is not being redistributed in any way, no commercial license is
ever required. Please see the license for more specific information.
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17. Do I have to license Berkeley DB to create an application for a single
customer?
Yes. Because you are redistributing your application off-site, you must
either make your application freely available in source code form or
purchase a license from Sleepycat Software for use of Berkeley DB in a
proprietary application. Sleepycat generally offers site-based licensing for
small deployments at prices that are lower than we charge for large-scale
redistribution. Please contact us for details.
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18. Do I have to license Berkeley DB to use it in Perl or Python scripts?
No. The Berkeley DB license requires that software that uses Berkeley DB be
freely redistributable. In the case of Perl or Python, that software is Perl
or Python, and not your scripts. Any scripts you write are your property,
including scripts that make use of Berkeley DB. None of the Perl, Python or
Berkeley DB licenses place any restrictions on what you may do with them.
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AFAIK, this is true for any version of Sleepycat > 1.85, and has been true
for years. Including a later version of Sleepycat BSDDB imposes a
constraint, not on Python itself, which is free, but on someone who would
like to distribute Python along with their _commercial_for_sale_ app (think
Py2Exe for example). That would be a distribution of BSDDB and and so "you
must either make your application freely available in source code form or
purchase a license from Sleepycat Software for use of Berkeley DB in a
proprietary application."

If you want to change Python's market dynamics and require _all_ Python apps
to be free and open source, then you can include any version of Sleepycat
BSDDB you like. I doubt it will have a positive impact on Python's future
prospects. It didn't work for Perl in it's early years and that's why the
Artistic License was change to allow "for fee" distributions that included
Perl.

Dave LeBlanc
Seattle, WA USA
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