[Pipet Devel] XML database woes

J.W. Bizzaro bizzaro at geoserve.net
Wed Jan 5 21:01:55 EST 2000


Brad Chapman wrote:
> 
>         I went back to check on things (www.dbxml.org) after the break and
> found out that the project is no longer open source with a BSD license, but
> is apparently going to be bought out and go commericial...[censored: a
> whole lot of not so nice words]...

Oddly enough, Gary and I just noticed that today (Gary is in Boston, and I've
been meeting with him to sort out some Loci design issues).

> Anyways, I won't rant on about my
> feelings on this, but I was just wondering if anyone knows what happens to
> the code which was being previously released under a open source license.

That's a good question.  Ultimately, the code is the property of the authors,
and they can do what they want with it.  But, a license was granted to you to
use the code under certain conditions.  And that license is valid because (1)
you obtained the license from the authors before the code was pulled, and (2)
there is no condition saying that your license can be revoked at any time.  I
think this is why they were so thorough at removing the code from the
Internet.

>         Along the same lines, has anyone heard about other open source XML
> databases? (gotta keep me fingers crossed...:)

XDBM is another.  It was mentioned here a few months back and then again by
Tim.  Unfortunately, it has the wacky QPL license: End users can run it for
free, but developers have to pay $300-500 per developer, per year.  The
license is incompatible with the GPL, so it would have to be distributed
separately.

Justin mentioned he would like to make his own GPL'd XML database.  I'd love
to see it.


Cheers.
Jeff
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