How does use of bsddb interact with Python in a commercial environment?

[Kenneth McDonald]

This is something I've been curious about for a while, and have never
quite figured out...

What are the legalities of writing commercial code which makes use
of the bsddb module in Python? I would expect that payment of some
sort would be necessary, but have no idea how much/under what terms.
Sleepycat's most basic fee is $25,000 I believe, if people wish to
incorporate code into their product, but what about the case (as
in Python) where the code is being accessed only indirectly?

No wonder I'm an engineer and not a lawyer

Thanks,
Ken McDonald

 

[vincent wehren]

This is something I've been curious about for a while, and have never
quite figured out...

What are the legalities of writing commercial code which makes use
of the bsddb module in Python? I would expect that payment of some
sort would be necessary, but have no idea how much/under what terms.
Sleepycat's most basic fee is $25,000 I believe, if people wish to
incorporate code into their product, but what about the case (as
in Python) where the code is being accessed only indirectly?

No wonder I'm an engineer and not a lawyer

Thanks,
Ken McDonald

The comments below the following article addressing this issue might be
of interest to you, although I can't really tell they will provide a
definitive answer to your question:

http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/11/26/discoveringBerkeleyDB

 

[vincent wehren]

This is something I've been curious about for a while, and have never
quite figured out...

What are the legalities of writing commercial code which makes use
of the bsddb module in Python? I would expect that payment of some
sort would be necessary, but have no idea how much/under what terms.
Sleepycat's most basic fee is $25,000 I believe, if people wish to
incorporate code into their product, but what about the case (as
in Python) where the code is being accessed only indirectly?

No wonder I'm an engineer and not a lawyer

Thanks,
Ken McDonald

The comments below the following article addressing this issue might be
of interest to you, although I can't really tell they will provide a
definitive answer to your question:

http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/11/26/discoveringBerkeleyDB

Regards,

-- Vincent Wehren

 

[Richie Hindle]

[Ken]

What are the legalities of writing commercial code which makes use
of the bsddb module in Python?

I asked exactly this question when we adopted bsddb for SpamBayes. Here's
what Barry Warsaw (the PythonLabs guy who talked to Sleepycat about it) had
to say: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/spambayes/2002-November/002213.html

It will continue to make nervous until SleepyCat themselves publish a
statement about it.