[postgis-users] PostGIS documentation license

[Sandro Santilli]

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 01:50:54PM -0400, Paragon Corporation wrote:

> I think software is more valuable the more people are using it and stress
> testing it. 

Only if such stress-testing results in actual fixes to the code...

> That said, I'm more concerned about people not using PostGIS
> because they fear they will have to release their proprietary source code,
> more than I am worried about people not giving back to the community. Even
> people who don't give back, find bugs and complain which makes the software
> stronger and more robust when we fix it.

If a company's strategy is to sell a proprietary portion of a system,
there might be a tendency to invest more on workarounds than on fixes
to the free software part. Doing so would increase the added value in
the mixed proprietary/free solution.

This is to say that stress-testing might result in proprietary improvements
more than bugfixes, unless the users of the software are obliged to release
the derivative work as free software as well.

> However the fact that PostGIS is GPL does give some a pause for concern as
> to how they distribute it etc and their willingness to even use it since it
> does bring up the question of where their software begins and PostGIS ends.

I don't see how is this bad.

> If you use Oracle, SQL Server etc, the fact there is a clear payment and
> exchange of goods makes it in some cases a safer choice if you are worried
> about protecting your intellectual property.

Excellent. This is really how copyleft should work.
It _must_ be an expensive choice not to give back to the community.
If you're willing to pay big bucks to be greedy, go ahead :)

--strk;

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