Re: Problem with recent PostgreSQL relatedpressrelease

In response to Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>:

> Bill Moran wrote:
> > Here's a question for someone at EDB: If I ran a benchmark that demonstrates
> > that database X is faster than EDB, then present my findings to your people
> > and you find it to be honestly and fairly done, would you allow me to
> > publish it?
>
> A larger question is whether EDB would sue a community member who did it
> without their permission.  Can you imagine that PR nightmare?

Interesting twist.

It's one of those things -- if you take it at face value it seems pretty
rough, but if you look deeper, you realize that the practical side of it
means that EDB can protect themselves from bullshit if need be.

The other problem is that (as I understand law, although I'm no lawyer) if
a community member _did_ do such a thing, and EDB decided not to sue for
the reason you mention, they would weaken any lawsuit they would make
thereafter, because of the whole "failure to enforce" thing.  For that
reason, I believe that EDB would _have_ to sue, in spite of the rift it
would cause.

Again, these are the things about business that I hate.  Could a court be
made to understand that there was no reason to sue someone who did an
honest benchmark, but they should be upheld in suing someone who did a
biased benchmark?  Or would the court simply whine that, "your terms say
X, and you were inconsistent in your enforcement of them."?

--
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com