Re: Licence

On Sunday 21 March 2010 21.11:56 Lew wrote:

> In at least some jurisdictions, if one party to a contract writes the
> language without input or emendation from the other party, that allows
> the other party to impose any reasonable interpretation on the wording.
> IOW, ambiguity is resolved in favor of the party who had no choice in
> the wording.
>
> That would mean the licensee gets to determine what "without fee" means,
> not the licensor.

A (copyright) license and a contract are two entirely different things.

By using PostgreSQL you do not enter a contract with the authors (or any
other copyright holder) but you make use of a license that grants you
certain permissions.  The essential difference to a contract is that if the
license terms are not to your liking, you can always quit using it.  With a
contract (especially those where one party alone wrote it - basically most
contracts a private person will ever have with a company such as a bank,
telco, insurance company, ....) you are usually bound and can't quit without
compensation, which is why the law protects the "weaker" party that much.

cheers
-- vbi


--
  Cum tacent, clamant. When they are silent, they shout. -Cicero