That's the reason why I went for PostrgreSQL for Mac: http://
www.postgresqlformac.com/
OpenBase Solo (their free version, 5 user methinks) was extremely
tempting, but I had already started on PostgreSQL: www.openbase.com
Cheers,
Luis.
On 5 May 2007, at 20:31, Peter Alcibiades wrote:
Years ago at a now forgotten company a whimsical older manager was
starting up
a first class on databases. What, he asked, is the most important
thing to
consider when inputting data into an application?
We young fellows stumbled around for a while, as you can imagine.
Finally he
delivered himself of his accumulated wisdom, which has remained
with me ever
since. "Never key any information into an application without
knowing how
you are going to get it out".
If what the clause is saying is, you the developer may not use the
embedded
kit to create and sell a database engine + ide, a product in
itself, that
competes with Valentina, that seems entirely reasonable. It is
exactly the
problem Rev might have had if there were a cut down version of
Studio, and a
cheap or free player - effectively, you'd be letting loose a more
or less
equivalent version of the product for very little or no revenue.
No one
could reasonably demand that you do that. And given a choice, is
the world
better off with cheap versions, or with none (which in the end is the
consequence of your being unable to restrict use in this way) most
of us
would say, better the cheap version with some restrictions.
But if what is being said is that once an end user has put his
stuff in, you
the developer may not use the kit to extract that data in a form
which he can
use in some other competing database, well, no thanks. We need to
get our
priorities straight: its his data. Don't tell him what to do with
it.
I was alerted to this by an organization who had keyed in several
person-years
work of their own intellectual property into a database with no export
provisions. When they wanted to get it out, the reply was, good
luck writing
your own programs, or pay us generously to do it. Whose intellectual
property was it? We had no doubt, but there seemed to be some
confusion in
the mind of the application supplier.
Post sale restrictions on use, in the EU, are unrelated to
copyright. You
cannot make derivative works, which are typically copyright
violations,
without approval of the holder. That is quite different from post
sales
restrictions on use, which attempt to prevent you from using the
purchased
property in certain ways which are legally unobjectionable.
The reason why I cannot put images derived from the DVD on a T
shirt without
permission is copyright. The reason why Sony cannot forbid me from
using the
player in any way I want after I've bought it, is that post sale
restrictions
on use are unenforceable in the EU. But this does not mean I can
use it to
violate copyright. That's an independent matter.
Take a tool - a plane or chisel for example. A supplier cannot
make two
versions, a professional one and a DIY one, and solely by
conditions on
purchase, forbid professional carpenters from using the DIY one for
purposes
of trade. Once people have bought things you can't tell them how
to use
them. You can void their warranty. You can exempt yourself from
damages due
to injury. But you can't stop them. I have often wondered
doubtrfully
whether, when Filemaker sells an academic version of Filemaker
Advanced in
the EU, and forbids the buyer to sell works made with it, that
would hold up
in court if challenged by some enterprising university or charity.
It would
perhaps be wise of both supplier and buyer not to insist on finding
out.
Peter
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