Removing (or trying to) BerkeleyDB from Fedora

[Florian Weimer]

On 01/08/2015 02:56 PM, Jan Staněk wrote:
> Hi guys,
> as the new BerkeleyDB 6.x has a more restrictive license than the
> previous versions (AGPLv3 vs. LGPLv2), and due to that many projects
> cannot use it, perhaps it is time to get rid of it from Fedora for good
> - or at least trim down the list of packages dependent on it as much as
> possible.

The previous license was the Sleepycat license, not the LGPLv2.  The 
Sleepycat license requires distribution of source code of the 
application as well, not just the library, so it is closer in effect to 
the GPL than to the LGPL.

The AGPLv3 inherits the sell-yourself-into-slavery clause from the GPLv3 
(*), so there are some cases where the new AGPLv3 license is less 
restrictive than the older Sleepycat license (depending on how the 
copyright owner interprets the older license—in the GPL case, it was 
argued that the sell-yourself-into-slavery permission was implicit in 
version 2).

(*) “You may convey covered works to others for the sole purpose of 
having them make modifications exclusively for you, or provide you with 
facilities for running those works, provided that you comply with the 
terms of this License in conveying all material for which you do not 
control copyright.  Those thus making or running the covered works for 
you must do so exclusively on your behalf, under your direction and 
control, on terms that prohibit them from making any copies of your 
copyrighted material outside their relationship with you.”

> The topic of BerkeleyDB v6 in Fedora was already discussed at this list
> [1], and it turned out that peaceful cooperation of multiple libdb
> versions in system is very problematic. As some packages cannot use
> newer versions, we are basically stuck with v5 - unless we get rid of it
> altogether or find another solution.

One of the recent press releases from Oracle specifically advertised 
Fedora support, so maybe they are interested in a closer collaboration, 
addressing Fedora's objections to the new license?

-- 
Florian Weimer / Red Hat Product Security