[Python-Dev] Incorporating bsddb3

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
>>>It's similar to GPL's "copyleft".  I think it's no different from what
>>>we do with e.g. GNU readline, so I think it's okay.  Redistributors of
>>>Python in binary form will have to beware though.  I wonder if we're
>>>on thin ice with the RPMs (since we don't clarify any of this)?
>>
>>... but we're not including readline in the standard Python
>>distribution. Why would we want to include the database code
>>itself in Python ?
> 
> Not in the source distro, but it will end up in the RPMs and other
> binary distros.

But that would violate the Sleepycat license; we are not shipping
readline or a module which statically links against readline
in the binary distros for the same reason.

As I understand, the BSD version shipped with Python so far
is using a standard BSD style license, so there's no problem
with it. However, Sleepycat added a copyleft kind of restriction
to the BSD license which makes this troublesome, esp. since the
restriction is not at all clear about what "use of the DB software"
really means. Their web-page on this is:

     http://www.sleepycat.com/licensing.html

Also, the Sleepycat license is not compatible with the Python
license in the sense that the Python license is far less
restrictive than the Sleepycat one. We'd have to make it very
clear that we have integrated third-party code into the
archive which falls under a much more restrictive license.
(FWIW, It would actually be wise to summarize all the different
licenses in the Python distro somewhere...)

So back to my original question: why go through all these
troubles ?

BTW, Sleepycat ships Berkley DB 4.1, wouldn't it be wise to
update the wrapper module to that version ?

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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