Licensing

Started by Bryan Booneover 4 years ago9 messagesgeneral
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#1Bryan Boone
bboone.nb@gmail.com

Hello Everyone. I have a question about licensing with PostgeSQL.

I work for a small company and we design websites for customers of ours. I read the license that is listed here.

https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/ <https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/&gt;

However, I am still confused.

The small company I work for develops websites and applications on AWS EC2 instances for our customers and we charge the customers a fee for hosting and for maintaining their websites.

I am trying to figure out which dbase software I can use and if I need to buy licenses or not.

We do not modify the PostgreSQL code and we do not redistribute the binaries. So far we are just running on a single instance for each of our customers, but we are not utilizing anything like a cluster or high availability CDN, other than what AWS EC2 provides. We always utilize Wordpress and Drupal for site front-end.

Can someone tell me if I am able to use PostgreSQL for the small company I work for? Is there a way to by a commercial license of PostgreSQL if we are required too?

Thanks

#2Ben
bench@silentmedia.com
In reply to: Bryan Boone (#1)
Re: Licensing

Bryan Boone wrote on 8/18/21 11:39 AM:

Can someone tell me if I am able to use PostgreSQL for the small
company I work for?

Yes, you are.

#3Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com
In reply to: Bryan Boone (#1)
Re: Licensing

On 8/18/21 11:39 AM, Bryan Boone wrote:

Hello Everyone. �I have a question about licensing with PostgeSQL.

I work for a small company and we design websites for customers of ours.
�I read the license that is listed here.

https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/

However, I am still confused.

I would think:

"Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written
agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
and this paragraph and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies. "

pretty much covers it, no fee, no written agreement is needed.

Thanks

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com

#4Mladen Gogala
gogala.mladen@gmail.com
In reply to: Bryan Boone (#1)
Re: Licensing

For a six-pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager or Molson Canadian Lager per
website, I hereby grant thee the right to use PostgreSQL with any
customer, to your heart's content. Please note that I don't accept
Budweiser or Miller products.

On 8/18/21 2:39 PM, Bryan Boone wrote:

Hello Everyone. �I have a question about licensing with PostgeSQL.

I work for a small company and we design websites for customers of
ours. �I read the license that is listed here.

https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/
<https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/&gt;

However, I am still confused.

The small company I work for develops websites and applications on AWS
EC2 instances for our customers and we charge the customers a fee for
hosting and for maintaining their websites.

I am trying to figure out which dbase software I can use and if I need
to buy licenses or not.

We do not modify the PostgreSQL code and we do not redistribute the
binaries. �So far we are just running on a single instance for each of
our customers, but we are not utilizing anything like a cluster or
high availability CDN, other than what AWS EC2 provides. �We always
utilize Wordpress and Drupal for site front-end.

Can someone tell me if I am able to use PostgreSQL for the small
company I work for? �Is there a way to by a commercial license of
PostgreSQL if we are required too?

Thanks

--
Mladen Gogala
Database Consultant
Tel: (347) 321-1217
https://dbwhisperer.wordpress.com

#5Bruce Momjian
bruce@momjian.us
In reply to: Mladen Gogala (#4)
Re: Licensing

On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 03:13:51PM -0400, Mladen Gogala wrote:

For a six-pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager or Molson Canadian Lager per
website, I hereby grant thee the right to use PostgreSQL with any customer,
to your heart's content. Please note that I don't accept Budweiser or Miller
products.

I am a root beer guy! And of course, the beer/root beer angle is just a
joke, Many companies use Postgres for many purposes, resell, modify,
etc, with no payment or requirements.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

If only the physical world exists, free will is an illusion.

#6Bryan Boone
bboone.nb@gmail.com
In reply to: Adrian Klaver (#3)
Re: Licensing

Ah okay thank you. I think what was confusing me was the “without fee”.

I wasn’t sure if that meant we could distribute it, but only if we did not charge a fee for it. But I guess that means that PostgreSQL will not charge a fee to us to distribute it.

Thanks

Show quoted text

On Aug 18, 2021, at 12:13 PM, Adrian Klaver <adrian.klaver@aklaver.com> wrote:

On 8/18/21 11:39 AM, Bryan Boone wrote:

Hello Everyone. I have a question about licensing with PostgeSQL.
I work for a small company and we design websites for customers of ours. I read the license that is listed here.
https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/ However, I am still confused.

I would think:

"Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies. "

pretty much covers it, no fee, no written agreement is needed.

Thanks

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com

#7Bruce Momjian
bruce@momjian.us
In reply to: Bryan Boone (#6)
Re: Licensing

On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 12:47:26PM -0700, Bryan Boone wrote:

Ah okay thank you. I think what was confusing me was the “without fee”.

I wasn’t sure if that meant we could distribute it, but only if we did not charge a fee for it. But I guess that means that PostgreSQL will not charge a fee to us to distribute it.

You are not the first person to be confused by this; see this email
thread from 2003:

/messages/by-id/a3c9d941f0a3761cc68adad1b43347b0@biglumber.com

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

If only the physical world exists, free will is an illusion.

#8Magnus Hagander
magnus@hagander.net
In reply to: Bruce Momjian (#7)
Re: Licensing

On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 2:34 AM Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:

On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 12:47:26PM -0700, Bryan Boone wrote:

Ah okay thank you. I think what was confusing me was the “without fee”.

I wasn’t sure if that meant we could distribute it, but only if we did not charge a fee for it. But I guess that means that PostgreSQL will not charge a fee to us to distribute it.

You are not the first person to be confused by this; see this email
thread from 2003:

Maybe we need to come up with a more explaining paragraph and add it
to https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/ -- similar to how we
explain that we're not going to change license... Like a "what does
this mean" section or something..

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: https://www.hagander.net/
Work: https://www.redpill-linpro.com/

#9Bruce Momjian
bruce@momjian.us
In reply to: Magnus Hagander (#8)
Re: Licensing

On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 04:07:52PM +0200, Magnus Hagander wrote:

On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 2:34 AM Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:

On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 12:47:26PM -0700, Bryan Boone wrote:

Ah okay thank you. I think what was confusing me was the “without fee”.

I wasn’t sure if that meant we could distribute it, but only if we did not charge a fee for it. But I guess that means that PostgreSQL will not charge a fee to us to distribute it.

You are not the first person to be confused by this; see this email
thread from 2003:

Maybe we need to come up with a more explaining paragraph and add it
to https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/ -- similar to how we
explain that we're not going to change license... Like a "what does
this mean" section or something..

Agreed, there is no problem in adding an explanation.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

If only the physical world exists, free will is an illusion.