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Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 08:55:39 +0100
From: Mark Metson <gpurdy@fox.nstn.ns.ca>
Subject: Use by a Business
To: postgres@postgres.Berkeley.EDU
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Resent-Date: Mon, 30 May 94 04:55:58 -0700
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I am unclear how the postgres license is to be interpreted where a business
is thinking of using it. Not 'distributing' it, but using it and placing
it on more than one machine. (Distributing it within the company therefore
to be construed as commercial distribution?) I am a consultant employed by
a Collection Agency to support and develop their computer systems. They
currently run a package I wrote for them in Business Basic, running under
S.C.O. Unix System V. The Basic and the Unix cost $2500 and $2300 (cant 
recall which figure is for which of them). They do not wish to pay out
$4800 each time they bring up another machine, hence I propose to move them
to Linux. If I utilise postgres instead of Business Basic to rewrite the
package, where would we stand regarding postgres license? They do not intend,
nor, I suspect, desire, to distribute the package to other agencies. However
we would like to be able to write user-agents for clients to use in accessing
subsets of our data -- this need not require postgres though. Primarily we
need record-locking; it appears ingres and metalbase do not provide this
(at least for isam type databases) whereas postgres does. But postgres may
in many ways be overkill just to obtain that one capability; postgres seems
so powerful that if there is to be a charge for using it, we fear the charge
could be rather high; since we are only considering it due to this one
feature, we probably could not afford such a powerful solution.

They ARE perfectly willing to release all source code of anything they DO
distribute, its just they arent planning to distribute. Would they be
REQUIRED to distribute it to all agencies who express an interest in
obtaining the package, or would they just have to provide source and all
copyrights etc to anyone they DO distribute it to (probably no-one) ???

Blessed Be. -MarkM-


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