Alvaro Herrera wrote:
Yeah. I invite you to do all the extra (useless) development work required. But please do not charge other people with it. Whoever investigates patents and lets pgsql-hackers know about them, is charging the Postgres community with that work. We sure don't need it.
As a developer (different project that uses pgsql), I am no more happy about the current status of the USPO than you are. I think it's a giant cess-pool of greed, ignorance and waste... BUT... it is currently the law in the USA.
How fast would Oracle, Microsoft or others jump on a chance to tear PostgreSQL apart by dragging it through the courts and crushing it under any fines (regardless of the amount)? If that happened, *all* of the pgsql-hacker's time would be wasted, never mind the countless other projects that rely on PgSQL.
As Scott said, there are 0 good answers to this problem. If PgSQL is going to be active in the US then it has to play by the (bent and twisted) rules. That is why I started my comments with "call your congress(wo)man". Simply ignoring that which you don't like is just far to risky with the sharks in our waters.
It's extra work, and it's unfair to the developers who already put their free time into this program, but IMHO it's the only safe way to go. Again though, not being a pgsql-hacker my comments here are just that.
Madi
