Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi,

I was just reading the POD of the Oracle DBD and was suprised to see the following text in the copyright section:

The DBD::Oracle module is Copyright (c) 1995,1996,1997,1998,1999 Tim Bunce. England. The DBD::Oracle module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself with the exception that it cannot be placed on a CD-ROM or similar media for commercial distribution without the prior approval of the author unless the CD-ROM is primarily a copy of the majority of the CPAN archive.

Does anyone know the reasoning behind the additional clause over and above the Perl license? Does Mr Bunce give permission for this or does he withhold these rights?

A.M.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Copyright notice on DBDs
by tachyon (Chancellor) on Oct 18, 2003 at 13:14 UTC

    Does Mr Bunce give permission for this or does he withhold these rights?

    This == What?

    It would seem pretty self explanatory to me.

    <NOT LEGAL ADVICE>

    It means you can use/modify it. It is not yours. The author indicates he does not want you to include it in a (commercial) product distributed on CD ROM which is legally a fairly pointless caveat as you can (under this) sell a product, incorporating this driver, provided you say distribute it via download and not on a CD or similar.

    If you want to sell a product using this driver on a CD you should ask. Hell you could even offer a few quid to Tim for the 1000s of hours he probably has invested in this driver. Who knows. He might settle for a beer next time you meet. Then again he might demand the soul of your first born male child as payment. Nah, probably M$ are the only people who demand that high a fee for their products.

    If you wanted to get highly legalistic and read the Perl licence and look for the clause that says caveats continue onto modified versions of the software released in the public domain.....and could not see that bit you would have found a loophole.

    If it really bugs you, and the answer really matters, did you consider just asking the author?

    cheers

    tachyon

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[reply]
      This == What?

      What I really meant was does anyone know if Tim has given this permission in the past or does he not want to grant commerical distribution on CD media (as is entirely his right)?

      I have attempted to contact Tim periodically over the last 18 months at the pobox.com address but without response. As you suggest, I have offered him a fee, royalities, an ongoing donation to the foundation but haven't heard anything back.

      I would be grateful if anyone knew another way to contact Tim as I do not want to do anything that he would view as a breech of his copyright.

      A.M.

[reply]
        I have attempted to contact Tim periodically over the last 18 months at the pobox.com address but without response.
        Ask on the DBI users mailing list. I know for a fact that Tim Bunce follows that mailing list, as well as at least a few other DBD developers.

        You have a higher chance of a respose, as these people generally prefer to reply in a public forum, where they feel their reply also serves a broader public, instead of just the private you.

[reply]

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