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LumoSQL / archive1-LumoSQL-on-github

Initial work on SQLite and LMDB integration
https://lumosql.github.io/LumoSQL/
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Some of the LMDB code is public domain #3

Closed maxwell-k closed 4 years ago

maxwell-k commented 4 years ago

For example in mdb.c:

Please do not copyright this code. This code is in the public domain.

danshearer commented 4 years ago

This is the same potential issue in some jurisdictions as with the public domain statements in the headers of SQLite source code.

danshearer commented 4 years ago

This entry in mdb.c is the only case I can find in all of LMDB. This is different to the SQLite case, which does not ask that the code "not be copyrighted".

I have contacted the author of the affected hash code in mdb.c

danshearer commented 4 years ago

Landon Curt Noll is the author of the FNV hash code in LMDB mdb.c , and he very courteously writes:

What if you replaced:

Please do not copyright this code. This code is in the public domain.

with:

Title: FNV Hash
Author: Landon Curt Noll - http://www.isthe.com/chongo/
Source: http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/fnv
License: CC BY 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
    Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
    The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
NOTE: This code was changed to use the 'CC BY 4.0' license by permission of the author.

I have notified the author of LMDB of this license authorisation.

If LMDB doesn't get updated for this we now know we can do it ourselves, but it would be much better to have it changed upstream.

danshearer commented 4 years ago

I conveyed this to the openldap mailing list, with the question and response here: https://www.mail-archive.com/openldap-devel@openldap.org/msg06278.html .

Howard Chu said in his response: "I'd be more inclined to add at the top of the file "contents copyright hyc unless noted otherwise" to make it clear that my copyright doesn't apply to the FNV code."

Since Howard wrote the code and is maintainer of liblmdb, that is the decision and presumably it will be in the next release of liblmdb. In any case, as per author Landon Curt Noll's comments in this ticket, it is beyond question that regardless of the wording in mdb.c , there is a clear license to the code that is not Public Domain.

danshearer commented 4 years ago

I don't think there is anything more LumoSQL can or should do. Closing.