Re: [HACKERS] Copyright

At 01:02 29/01/00 -0400, The Hermit Hacker wrote:
>> 
>> Ah, corporate assets? What if someone bought out PostgreSQL, Inc., for
>> a huge sum of money. They'd get control of anything PostgreSQL, Inc.
>> has control over. One can't buy out a non-profit organization.
>
>One can't buy out open source software either ... 

This depends on the definition of open source; I think Netscape is
OpenSource these days, but I doubt if anyone would be allowed to take the
sources and create "Petscape: The Dog's Browser". But, as far as I know, I
could go away tomorrow with the PostgreSQL sources and create "Mostgress",
so long as I did not try to sell it. AFAIK, I might even get away with
selling it, but it's not really the point.

What matters is that it remains open, free, and modifyable by anyone, for
any purpose.

This does bring up the larger question of what happened to the original
copyrights? Is this covered in Bruce's upcoming book?


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