Re: Import of sqlite3

[matthew sporleder <msporleder%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 10:13 PM, Greg Troxel <gdt%ir.bbn.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> Marc Balmer <mbalmer%NetBSD.org@localhost> writes:
>
>> Am 25.08.11 01:49, schrieb Joerg Sonnenberger:
>>
>>> I would like to import sqlite3 into our tree. The license is PD. The
>>> file format has been quite stable. It's around 760KB for the shared
>>> library on AMD64. It would allow replacing many users of bdb with
>>> something that can be modified without worrying about file corruption
>>> in case of crashes. A direct user would be the apropos(1) GSoC project.
>>
>> I support that idea, very much so, even.  But PD is not a license, maybe
>> that causes problems on some legislations.  So maybe add a BSD license,
>> which I think can be done, since it is PD? (We can still give proper
>> credit).
>
> IANAL, TINLA but I listen to podcasts where lawyers talk:
>
>  PD is a concept in American law.  It does not exist, or exist as
>  clearly, in other jurisdictions.    If it turns out that in some
>  jurisdictions it doesn't exist, then us adding a BSD license doesn't
>  make any sense, because we aren't the author, and it doesn't resolve
>  the lack of license from the original author.
>
>  If this is a problem, the fix is to ask upstream to change from PD to
>  CC0, which is more or less "PD, and if PD doesn't work in this
>  jurisdiction, a license for anyone to do anything with no
>  requirements".
>
> I would be astonished if our use of sqlite caused trouble.
>
>


I agree.  At the very least, attempting to relicense sqlite would be
in very poor taste.

The whole spirit of sqlite's licensing is to act as if it were created
a hundred years ago and none of the original authors are around to
defend it- kind of like the collected works of William Shakespeare.
You can resell/repackage it all you want, but putting your name on it
is a little silly.

From http://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html
"The author or authors of this code dedicate any and all copyright
interest in this code to the public domain. We make this dedication
for the benefit of the public at large and to the detriment of our
heirs and successors. We intend this dedication to be an overt act of
relinquishment in perpetuity of all present and future rights to this
code under copyright law."