Re: Publishing Postgres Manual as a book

Erik Wienhold <ewie@ewie.name> writes:
> On 23/03/2023 04:34 CET Ian Lawrence Barwick <barwick@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Also not a lawyer, but the full sentence is:

>>> Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
>>> documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written agreement is
>>> hereby granted

>> which in my non-lawyerly interpretation means anyone copying, modifying and
>> distributing the documentation may do so without paying a fee. A distributor
>> could charge what they like.

> I know the fee clause from licenses such as Zero-Clause BSD, ISC License, and
> GPLv3.  They state "with or without fee" or "gratis or for a fee" pertaining to
> the distribution.  That's also how I interpret the fee clause in the PostgreSQL
> license with the difference that it does not permit taking a fee.

No, I agree with Ian: our license says that the Postgres project does not
require a fee.  It does not say that someone redistributing the material
can't charge for their efforts.  It would obviously be ridiculous to
expect someone to print a multi-thousand-page book and then give it away
for free.

I do question the practicality and environmental cost of putting such
short-lived material on dead trees, though ...

            regards, tom lane