Sleepycat Software distributes Berkeley DB under a
license agreement that draws on both the UC Berkeley
copyright and the GPL. The license guarantees that
Berkeley DB will remain an Open Source product and
provides Sleepycat with opportunities to make money
to fund continued development on the software.
I am intrigued by licences, not because of the legal complexity, rather because of the way in which some make the world worse, and others make it better. Not just the world, but the noosphere, that is the offence. It is a sin to hoard knowledge, just as it is a sin to dump oranges in the sea to keep prices high when people are starving. The logic of a system that makes that viable for a few is a flawed logic. It might take a lawyer to explain why the Sleepycat licence is used instead of the GPL… but it does seem to accomplish the same end, of keeping modifications open for our future.
I just noticed my use of the word “sin” here. That may be how this item relates to the seemingly diverse string of items in my weblog. Sin ties in with soul. Crime is wrong, but crimes against soul are sins?