Re: [Postgres-xc-general] License of Postgres-XC related documents and contents

[Mason S. <ma...@st...>]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 1:34 AM, Koichi Suzuki
<koi...@gm...> wrote:
> As raised by Mason and commented by many members, I think it's a time
> to determine how XC-related documents/contents license should be.
> Here's my idea.
>
> 1. As Mason proposed, I think creative commons is suitable for XC
> documents/contents (except for the code and the reference, they're
> licensed under PostgreSQL license).
>
> 2. Only for non-commercial use.   For commercial use, need specific approval.

You referred to XC-related documents. Do you mean the official
Postgres-XC documentation? I think the documentation should have the
same license as whatever the software is.  Think of PostgreSQL itself.
It would seem a bit odd if the PostgreSQL documentation had a
different license than PostgreSQL. Other commercial software might be
reluctant to use PostgreSQL as its database if they had to rewrite the
documentation. I think a liberal license was chosen by the PostgreSQL
folks in part to increase adoption.

>
> 3.  Share-alike.  Can distribute the resulting work only under the
> same or similar license.
>
> 4. Original Author.   I'm thinking at least "Postgres-XC development
> group" should be referred as an original author in derived work.

>
> 1, 2 and 3 makes the license Attribute-NonComercial-ShareAlike 3.0
> Unported (or CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

Just curious, what is the concern if used commercially?  Let's say I
offer training for a fee, so companies can be assured that XC will be
professionally supported with professional services and training. If
any presentations are credited to the Postgres-XC Development Group,
who are the members of the development group and who makes the final
decision in terms of granting permission to use the material?  I think
the various PostgreSQL companies that offer training all probably have
some overlap of materials gained from the community.  As one of the
original architects of Postgres-XC, and I would want to try and be
part of any decision making process. Maybe a solution is if a company
does not want a presentation to be modified for some reason they
should write it under their company or as an individual and not within
the Postgres-XC Development Group. In contrast, if any material is
credited to the Postgres-XC Development Group, it should be allowed to
be used liberally, even for commercial use, since the other body of
work (the source code) is BSD-like (The PostgreSQL License). If NTT
Data wants their presentations under a Creative Commons non-commercial
license, then they can retain the copyright, and not credit the
Postgres-XC Development Group.


>
> I think you will have different idea on 4.   I'd like to collect
> inputs to have our final idea.
>
> If anybody would like to use XC documents/contents commercially, they
> need to have specific approval.   I'm also thinking to establish "fund
> raising group" who receives and approves commercial use, as well as
> future fundraising work.   This is closed group consists of selected
> XC mailing list reader.   I'd like to draft update to the charter of
> the group for comments.
>
> Any inputs to this idea is welcome.
>
> Best Regards;
> ----------
> Koichi Suzuki
>
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Mason Sharp

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