Re: contrib and licensing

Kevin Brown <kevin@sysexperts.com> writes:
> But if both of these paragraphs are simultaneously true, then why put
> *anything* in contrib?

Don't say that too loudly, or Marc may take it upon himself to make it
happen ;-).

There are a number of reasons to keep things in contrib.  One is that
the code may be too tightly tied to backend innards to be appropriate to
maintain separately (the GIST extension modules are a good example, and
most of the modules that include server-side code are easier to maintain
with the server than not).  Another is that small modules may not have
enough critical mass to get maintained at all, if they're kicked out to
live or die on their own.

> Otherwise, perhaps you're more concerned about the licensing issues in
> contrib than you need to be?

The way I see it, the "only BSD stuff in contrib" rule is designed
precisely to save us from having to think too hard about licensing
issues.  I'm not interested in getting into lawyeristic arguments
about how it's okay to distribute something with a different license
if only we don't do XYZ with it.
        regards, tom lane