[Zope] Sybase DA + FreeBSD + TDS

[Hannu Krosing]

Andrew Kenneth Milton wrote:
> 
> +----[ Anthony Baxter ]---------------------------------------------
> | >>> Andrew Kenneth Milton wrote
> | > | A few comments: You'll need a more recent release of Sybase than the
> | > | old free 11.0.3 version. There's an 11.9.2 that you can download.
> | > I only really need it to talk to MS-SQL 6.5 and it is working so the
> | > 11.0.3 header files seem to be enough. I also didn't want to have anything
> | > radically divergent from the FreeTDS base, so I figured an earlier release
> | > was better.
> |
> | I _believe_ the 11.0.3 release is a "free" one, i.e. you don't need to
> | get a license for it. In that case, you could put together a how-to like
> 
> /*
> **      Sybase Open Client/Server Version 10.0.1
> **      Confidential Property of Sybase, Inc.
> **      Copyright  Sybase, Inc. 1992, 1994
> **      All rights reserved
> */
> 
> You don't need a license to use, I think you need a license to
> redistribute parts of it.

But how-to and patches are _not_ a part of it ! They are _your_ intellectual 
property and you are free to do hwatever you want with it. (Unless you have 
signed some papers specifically giving up your rights to distribute your work
in future in exchange to the privilege of looking at their code ;)

> I guess if I put a How-To up on the
> Zope site and if DigiCool are happy to take the heat for it,
> I can do it, inc. patches against freetds and the Sybase
> include files. It's the diffs against the include files I'm
> worried about + the fact that FreeTDS is GPL and Sybase is not;

Yes, the last part can be troublesome. You should have never linked them, 
not even for your own use! AFAIK GPL specifically forbids this. 
So wait for a call from FSF lawyers.

> derivative products and all that. I'm not going to subject anyone
> to possible legal action without their permission :-)

Just put a prominent notice in the readme.txt and advise possible downloaders
to read readme.txt before downloading the how-to.

> I guess if I was really keen, I'd just make the FreeTDS code
> conform to the Sybase Header files, instead of replacing the
> Sybase structures with the FreeTDS ones. I'm not sure about the
> legality of distributing that either though.

I guess the most legal code would result from adapting SybaseDA to FreeTDS.
I can't see any legal problems there (but IANAL)

-------------------
Hannu