7 ms·

In place of a legal notice, here is a blessing

247 points by jah 5y ago

themodelplumber 5y ago
That's pretty cool in some ways. In other ways it's interesting as a reflection of the author's obvious preference for subjective ethics. For example, what is good? A lot of people share concepts of what is good, but a lot of people really don't. Not because they're bad people, but because life circumstances typically go way deeper than good and evil, for instance. So--what is the author saying, really? Subjective stuff like this isn't bad, but it does really lead directly into the deeper questions. Also, how does one determine whether they've taken more than they've given? A lot of people are going to bring subjective past impressions into this determination, which, like good & bad above, are complex enough that you can make that take-or-give-o-meter read just about anything--and again, justify--just about anything. So on the one hand, it's nice that it's framed as a generous blessing, and good lord does it cut right through all that stupid legal bull! And on the other hand, people who place boring, obtuse, business law terminology where this project has placed a blessing have really good reasons for doing so, as such efforts, which get at objective use cases and expectations, have helped to remediate a lot of damage done by a bit too much subjectivity and projection of expectations in our communications. (Bless me father, for I have clause'd)
- Georgelemental 5y ago
  > "The author's obvious preference for subjective ethics" I doubt this interpretation, given SQLite's Code of Ethics (https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html). Abrahamic faiths and subjective ethics don't go well together; "I am the way, the truth, and the life" doesn't leave much room for alternatives.
  - hprotagonist 5y ago
    >Abrahamic faiths and subjective ethics don't go well together christian existentialism is alive and well and has a loooong history. (and john 3:16 is a lot more universalist than the people who wield it like a club seem to believe)
  - throwaway984393 5y ago
    What's funny is the principals of what modern progresive intellectuals find right or wrong were introduced by Abrahamic (specifically Christian) teachings. Before that, the whole framework of the poor or meek being something everyone should protect wasn't a common idea. Even devout Atheists are basically Christian philosophers with scientific faith replacing theistic faith.
    - rvense 5y ago
      It says somewhere that there is nothing new under the sun... Christianity, including its ethics, obviously also had sources and influences. Both in its inception and as it has changed, fractured and adapted to its surroundings over time. And if you truly think that Jesus invented helping the poor and acting righteous, I can only recommend you read about religions. Both those that influenced Christianity and those that never came into contact with it.
      - mnw21cam 5y ago
        > It says somewhere that there is nothing new under the sun... Ah yes, that's most of Ecclesiastes. Everything is meaningless. King Solomon sometimes comes across as a bit of whinger, but then what do you expect if you're ultra-rich and bored and questioning the meaning of it all. I agree that many aspects of Christianity have precedent. The one rather novel thing that it introduced was the concept of a God who would voluntarily suffer excruciating punishment so that we wouldn't have to.
    - fartcannon 5y ago
      Is it necessary for all Atheists to have faith in science? Science is a process to figure out the universe, not a thing/person/god. It's not the only way to know stuff, its just a good way. If the argument is that some people say Science as if it was some god, well, not much I can argue against there. Certainly not all atheists though. Otherwise, I agree that modern people took some of the good stuff old religions. It's so hard to know the truth, even about ourselves.
    - FredPret 5y ago
      Nietzsche wrote a fascinating book about this - The Genealogy of Morals. If I remember correctly, he uses the ancient city of Rome as a symbol of the pre-Abrahamic, natural han ethic. Power is good, sex is good, wealth is good, strength is good, competence is good. This contrasts with the Jerusalem ethic where an almighty god is worshipped, not perched on a mountain or a cloud, but while nailed to a cross. So now self-sacrifice is good, and the whole story revolves around the weak, the poor, the downtrodden. We’re still in the Jerusalem phase, despite having replaced the church with the state. Perhaps one day, in a few millennia, the wheel will turn back around. It’s a good book!
  - themodelplumber 5y ago
    There's no reference to any Code of Ethics in the linked space above, though. Contextually the blessing text is completely subjective. (PS Are you also saying they have objectively measured the existence of God, or the divinity of Christ...?)
    - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
      > PS Are you also saying they have objectively measured the existence of God, or the divinity of Christ...? There's only one objective reality/truth, regardless of human ability to measure it. It's like arguing that the stars' existence is subjective because you can't count them.
      - astrange 5y ago
        > There's only one objective reality/truth, regardless of human ability to measure it. This way of thinking doesn't respect relativity enough to be settled. Sure if you go meta enough you could say there's only one universe, but maybe that's an imaginary descriptive construct and two particles whose light cones don't intersect aren't actually in the same "reality".
    - Georgelemental 5y ago
      I'm saying that Abrahamic faiths generally don't leave any room for "my truth" being different from "your truth." There is only one Truth with a capital T, because there is only one God with a capital G. So if two people differ on some point of doctrine or ethics, one of them must be Right and the other must be Wrong. Mere mortals might not be able to determine which is which with perfect accuracy, but the One True God certainly can.
      - themodelplumber 5y ago
        Gotcha, in fact I used to preach that style of position from my neo-Abrahamic pulpit. Slightly different in that I was preaching that God OR his special representatives like me could tell you what the right truth was. Funny memories.
  - aloisdg 5y ago
    > 16. Visit the sick. Worst rule ever during a pandemic.
- bee_rider 5y ago
  Has it ever been shown in court that there's any real point to putting a license at the top of every file? I'd think that the whole project is licensed under some terms, rather than having to do each file individually.... Anyway, I think structuring it as a blessing means that it doesn't tell us much about the author's view of ethics. Which is to say, it is so clearly just a reminder to the reader that they should be their best self, that it couldn't possibly be misinterpreted as the actual, objective legal requirements. So, those must be somewhere else, right?
  - themodelplumber 5y ago
    Subjectively you may personally think that it _must_ have a license somewhere, sure. But the file itself says right there--no copyright, no legal notice. The rest is also your interpretation, and the reason I say that is that you're also kind of putting yourself in the objective audience's seat in creating the interpretation. So there's still a subjective hand-wave effect. Get into the position of somebody who has no idea what the expectations are for "never taking more than you give"--where exactly is that line supposed to be, speaking in terms of details that matter...? ...and see if you can understand what it's like to be spoken to from someone else's set of simply-expressed, vague expectations connected to exactly which ethical framework we do not really know. If you're "average joe"ing this, that's more of a subjective demonstration of where this kind of language may feel awesome for the author or even average-yourself-speaking-about-you-personally, but for others--what about them?
  - plorkyeran 5y ago
    The per-file license notice is for clarity, particularly when a single file is taken from a project and used separately. It's not a legal requirement.
- ars 5y ago
  > For example, what is good? A lot of people share concepts of what is good, but a lot of people really don't. Not because they're bad people, but because life circumstances typically go way deeper than good and evil, for instance. So--what is the author saying, really? IBM had the same problem, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5138866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5138866 for the solution :)
graderjs 5y ago
I like it when software and spirituality come together. Reminds me of "the temple of God" operating system and I'm sure there's a lot of other developers who have sort of a spiritual or rapture experience. From a way more zany far out and perhaps metaphysical perspective I mean God if he she or they exists really is the ultimate programmer crafting whole realities. Maybe there is an inherent spiritual connection in code? Even if it's just analogical
- the_only_law 5y ago
  > Reminds me of "the temple of God" operating system and I'm sure there's a lot of other developers who have sort of a spiritual or rapture experience He was a very intelligent individual who’s life was ruined by mental illness. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
  - graderjs 5y ago
    Oh I'm not making regard to that: to its goodness or not in that comment. That's you're doing that. I'm just saying what I said there about it, thanks. I hope you'll not misinterpret me.
  - swebs 5y ago
    >who’s life was ruined by mental illness If some FOIA request decades down the line reveals that the CIA was actually involved, I wouldn't be surprised. MKULTRA happened after all.
    - graderjs 5y ago
      That would be a disaster for them. But I don't think we'd have to wait decades, I'm sure those things are already known. Although, attributing all the world's ills to a shadowy cabal of corrupt operatives is a pretty crazy conspiracy theory... that might just be the problem. However, looking at how crazy society is today you can kind of understand how people would reach that conclusion..
      - 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
sydthrowaway 5y ago
Imagine if one day every product in the world was released for free under this license Make it happen.
- cmacleod4 5y ago
  Note that while the sqlite code is public domain, the enormous test suite that every release has to pass is not!
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - sydthrowaway 5y ago
    And so we find the catch
Georgelemental 5y ago
See also the Code of Ethics: https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html
- randerson 5y ago
  Some mental gymnastics must have been involved when writing this list considering SQLite was originally built for guided-missile destroyers.
  - josefx 5y ago
    As far as I understand the code of conduct is more or less an in joke. They don't have any community integration worth noting as all SQLite contributors are full time employees. It mainly exists to tick of a checkbox in their customers/donors requirements without actually adopting any of the CoCs people kept pushing.
- collegeburner 5y ago
  I can't respons to randerson's comment directly because it's dead, I'd recommend he look at Aquinas' just war theory and other Christian ideas on when war is ok. There are many problems with the military industrial complex we have but that does not mean we should have no defense. Guided missile destroyers fulfill a legitimate defense role and would be needed even if we were much less interventionist.
  - randerson 5y ago
    I didn't dispute whether it can be used for good, I'm glad we have these things and I'm also a huge fan of SQLite. But when your system shoots down an enemy (to you) aircraft, how do you reconcile that with: "Do not murder." "Love your neighbor as yourself." "Honor all people." "Do not do to another what you would not have done to yourself." "Do not return evil for evil." "Love your enemies." the list goes on..
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
pmcollins 5y ago
I always found it interesting that sqlite was released into the public domain only a few days after 9/11. Surely, this was not a coincidence.
- leros 5y ago
  SQLite feels older to me than that. Weird
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    Kids born after 9/11 can drink in most countries at this point. Some will have graduated university and are working among us.
    - loeg 5y ago
      And a lot of kids born before 9/11 don't remember it, and they're in the workforce now.
      - yongjik 5y ago
        Recently saw a Reddit thread with "Were the twin towers famous before they fell?" Felt old.
        Zandikar 5y ago
        And just to follow up for anyone who may genuinely be wondering: Yes. Yes they were. Not quite as ubiquitous or well known as "9/11" is today, but they were up there with the statue of liberty as far as Icons of NYC and to a slightly lesser extent icons of the USA. They were, as they say, a big deal, even before they fell.
        gjs278 5y ago
        5y ago
thunderbong 5y ago
From the README - > If you are reading this on GitHub or some other Git repository or service, then you are looking at a mirror. The same file from the fossil repository - https://sqlite.org/src/file?name=src/main.c&ci=trunk https://sqlite.org/src/file?name=src/main.c&ci=trunk
- inopinatus 5y ago
  Thanks, the text was much harder to read in the mirror.
DylanSp 5y ago
Has anyone heard of any issues using SQLite in jurisdictions without a concept of the public domain? The copyright page [1] seems to imply that you'd need to buy a license from Hwaci. [1] https://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html https://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html
- stubish 5y ago
  Everyone is happily using public domain software in all jurisdictions. The timezone code used by many (all?) Linux and Unix distributions is public domain. If you can find a jurisdiction without the explicit concept of the public domain and judges and lawyers that think there is no implicit concept of the public domain and someone who can claim copyright with a straight face to code that explicitly states that the authors relinquish their claim, then I still suspect it would get thrown out of court and the claimant opening themselves to charges of criminal fraud (entrapment and extortion) or abusing the justice system for profit.
  - fanf2 5y ago
    The reason it would fail in court is estoppel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel
  - GlitchMr 5y ago
    Entrapment can only be committed by government agents.
- sb057 5y ago
  It remains an open legal question (at least in the United States) whether or not an author even can voluntarily release something into the public domain. Hwaci could theoretically decide that, actually, that they never really put SQLite in the public domain and in fact possess full copyright over it and would like not only current and future licensing fees, but also retroactive fees from everyone who's used it over the past 20 years without legal permission. Lawsuits ensue, pandemonium happens, etc. However, if you actually did acquire a license from them beforehand (when it was still theoretically free), they'd have no ground to sue and such a case brought against you would be thrown out of court immediately.
durkie 5y ago
I almost feel like SQLite could have documentary made about it at this point. There are so many things about it that are just unique and fascinating.
- ridaj 5y ago
  There is one https://corecursive.com/066-sqlite-with-richard-hipp/ https://corecursive.com/066-sqlite-with-richard-hipp/ (I liked it)
  - twelvechairs 5y ago
    Thanks for the link I very much enjoyed that
  - m12k 5y ago
    That story about how Mitchell Baker helped set up the SQLite Consortium is interesting, hadn't heard of that before. She gets a lot of flak for the direction Mozilla has been heading, so it's heartening to hear how she advocated that the Consortium be set up in a way where the developers retain the power.
- Areading314 5y ago
  I remember several years ago, I was considering pushing for some changes to our application to use a database like sqlite instead of a proprietary flat file format. I remember reading through the source and realizing how beautiful C source code could be, compared to the prop C code I was used to working on. That plus the constant improvement, stellar performance, and beautiful source code make Sqlite one of the top most gems of open-source software in my opinion. Huge props to Dwayne Hipp and the other contributors to this database which has enabled so many apps and products!
  - sgbeal 5y ago
    FWIW: when i met drh for the first time in September 2011 i asked him, "what's the D in your name for, if i may ask?" His answer was, "only my mother gets to call me that." PS: He goes by Richard.
nocluuwhat 5y ago
Anyone with a two-liner what this is all about?
- dt3ft 5y ago
  The author disclaims copyright to their source code. See the actual license here: https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/blob/master/LICENSE.md https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/blob/master/LICENSE.md
ltbarcly3 5y ago
If nobody ever takes more than they give than nobody can give or take anything.
jll29 5y ago
Richard Hipp is a devout Christian, and demonstrates James 2:18: "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." Thanks for the blessings and the beautiful code; you really can be a poet in any language.
- hprotagonist 5y ago
  take that, sola fide!
hprotagonist 5y ago
was the header really last edited 15 September 2001? I can understand the sentiment even more, if so.

247 points by jah 5y ago

That's pretty cool in some ways. In other ways it's interesting as a reflection of the author's obvious preference for subjective ethics. For example, what is good? A lot of people share concepts of what is good, but a lot of people really don't. Not because they're bad people, but because life circumstances typically go way deeper than good and evil, for instance. So--what is the author saying, really? Subjective stuff like this isn't bad, but it does really lead directly into the deeper questions. Also, how does one determine whether they've taken more than they've given? A lot of people are going to bring subjective past impressions into this determination, which, like good & bad above, are complex enough that you can make that take-or-give-o-meter read just about anything--and again, justify--just about anything. So on the one hand, it's nice that it's framed as a generous blessing, and good lord does it cut right through all that stupid legal bull! And on the other hand, people who place boring, obtuse, business law terminology where this project has placed a blessing have really good reasons for doing so, as such efforts, which get at objective use cases and expectations, have helped to remediate a lot of damage done by a bit too much subjectivity and projection of expectations in our communications. (Bless me father, for I have clause'd)

Georgelemental 5y ago
> "The author's obvious preference for subjective ethics" I doubt this interpretation, given SQLite's Code of Ethics (https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html). Abrahamic faiths and subjective ethics don't go well together; "I am the way, the truth, and the life" doesn't leave much room for alternatives.
- hprotagonist 5y ago
  >Abrahamic faiths and subjective ethics don't go well together christian existentialism is alive and well and has a loooong history. (and john 3:16 is a lot more universalist than the people who wield it like a club seem to believe)
- throwaway984393 5y ago
  What's funny is the principals of what modern progresive intellectuals find right or wrong were introduced by Abrahamic (specifically Christian) teachings. Before that, the whole framework of the poor or meek being something everyone should protect wasn't a common idea. Even devout Atheists are basically Christian philosophers with scientific faith replacing theistic faith.
  - rvense 5y ago
    It says somewhere that there is nothing new under the sun... Christianity, including its ethics, obviously also had sources and influences. Both in its inception and as it has changed, fractured and adapted to its surroundings over time. And if you truly think that Jesus invented helping the poor and acting righteous, I can only recommend you read about religions. Both those that influenced Christianity and those that never came into contact with it.
    - mnw21cam 5y ago
      > It says somewhere that there is nothing new under the sun... Ah yes, that's most of Ecclesiastes. Everything is meaningless. King Solomon sometimes comes across as a bit of whinger, but then what do you expect if you're ultra-rich and bored and questioning the meaning of it all. I agree that many aspects of Christianity have precedent. The one rather novel thing that it introduced was the concept of a God who would voluntarily suffer excruciating punishment so that we wouldn't have to.
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    Is it necessary for all Atheists to have faith in science? Science is a process to figure out the universe, not a thing/person/god. It's not the only way to know stuff, its just a good way. If the argument is that some people say Science as if it was some god, well, not much I can argue against there. Certainly not all atheists though. Otherwise, I agree that modern people took some of the good stuff old religions. It's so hard to know the truth, even about ourselves.
  - FredPret 5y ago
    Nietzsche wrote a fascinating book about this - The Genealogy of Morals. If I remember correctly, he uses the ancient city of Rome as a symbol of the pre-Abrahamic, natural han ethic. Power is good, sex is good, wealth is good, strength is good, competence is good. This contrasts with the Jerusalem ethic where an almighty god is worshipped, not perched on a mountain or a cloud, but while nailed to a cross. So now self-sacrifice is good, and the whole story revolves around the weak, the poor, the downtrodden. We’re still in the Jerusalem phase, despite having replaced the church with the state. Perhaps one day, in a few millennia, the wheel will turn back around. It’s a good book!
- themodelplumber 5y ago
  There's no reference to any Code of Ethics in the linked space above, though. Contextually the blessing text is completely subjective. (PS Are you also saying they have objectively measured the existence of God, or the divinity of Christ...?)
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    > PS Are you also saying they have objectively measured the existence of God, or the divinity of Christ...? There's only one objective reality/truth, regardless of human ability to measure it. It's like arguing that the stars' existence is subjective because you can't count them.
    - astrange 5y ago
      > There's only one objective reality/truth, regardless of human ability to measure it. This way of thinking doesn't respect relativity enough to be settled. Sure if you go meta enough you could say there's only one universe, but maybe that's an imaginary descriptive construct and two particles whose light cones don't intersect aren't actually in the same "reality".
  - Georgelemental 5y ago
    I'm saying that Abrahamic faiths generally don't leave any room for "my truth" being different from "your truth." There is only one Truth with a capital T, because there is only one God with a capital G. So if two people differ on some point of doctrine or ethics, one of them must be Right and the other must be Wrong. Mere mortals might not be able to determine which is which with perfect accuracy, but the One True God certainly can.
    - themodelplumber 5y ago
      Gotcha, in fact I used to preach that style of position from my neo-Abrahamic pulpit. Slightly different in that I was preaching that God OR his special representatives like me could tell you what the right truth was. Funny memories.
- aloisdg 5y ago
  > 16. Visit the sick. Worst rule ever during a pandemic.
bee_rider 5y ago
Has it ever been shown in court that there's any real point to putting a license at the top of every file? I'd think that the whole project is licensed under some terms, rather than having to do each file individually.... Anyway, I think structuring it as a blessing means that it doesn't tell us much about the author's view of ethics. Which is to say, it is so clearly just a reminder to the reader that they should be their best self, that it couldn't possibly be misinterpreted as the actual, objective legal requirements. So, those must be somewhere else, right?
- themodelplumber 5y ago
  Subjectively you may personally think that it _must_ have a license somewhere, sure. But the file itself says right there--no copyright, no legal notice. The rest is also your interpretation, and the reason I say that is that you're also kind of putting yourself in the objective audience's seat in creating the interpretation. So there's still a subjective hand-wave effect. Get into the position of somebody who has no idea what the expectations are for "never taking more than you give"--where exactly is that line supposed to be, speaking in terms of details that matter...? ...and see if you can understand what it's like to be spoken to from someone else's set of simply-expressed, vague expectations connected to exactly which ethical framework we do not really know. If you're "average joe"ing this, that's more of a subjective demonstration of where this kind of language may feel awesome for the author or even average-yourself-speaking-about-you-personally, but for others--what about them?
- plorkyeran 5y ago
  The per-file license notice is for clarity, particularly when a single file is taken from a project and used separately. It's not a legal requirement.
ars 5y ago
> For example, what is good? A lot of people share concepts of what is good, but a lot of people really don't. Not because they're bad people, but because life circumstances typically go way deeper than good and evil, for instance. So--what is the author saying, really? IBM had the same problem, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5138866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5138866 for the solution :)

graderjs 5y ago

I like it when software and spirituality come together. Reminds me of "the temple of God" operating system and I'm sure there's a lot of other developers who have sort of a spiritual or rapture experience. From a way more zany far out and perhaps metaphysical perspective I mean God if he she or they exists really is the ultimate programmer crafting whole realities. Maybe there is an inherent spiritual connection in code? Even if it's just analogical

the_only_law 5y ago
> Reminds me of "the temple of God" operating system and I'm sure there's a lot of other developers who have sort of a spiritual or rapture experience He was a very intelligent individual who’s life was ruined by mental illness. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
- graderjs 5y ago
  Oh I'm not making regard to that: to its goodness or not in that comment. That's you're doing that. I'm just saying what I said there about it, thanks. I hope you'll not misinterpret me.
- swebs 5y ago
  >who’s life was ruined by mental illness If some FOIA request decades down the line reveals that the CIA was actually involved, I wouldn't be surprised. MKULTRA happened after all.
  - graderjs 5y ago
    That would be a disaster for them. But I don't think we'd have to wait decades, I'm sure those things are already known. Although, attributing all the world's ills to a shadowy cabal of corrupt operatives is a pretty crazy conspiracy theory... that might just be the problem. However, looking at how crazy society is today you can kind of understand how people would reach that conclusion..
    - 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

sydthrowaway 5y ago

Imagine if one day every product in the world was released for free under this license Make it happen.

cmacleod4 5y ago
Note that while the sqlite code is public domain, the enormous test suite that every release has to pass is not!
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- sydthrowaway 5y ago
  And so we find the catch

Georgelemental 5y ago

See also the Code of Ethics: https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html

randerson 5y ago
Some mental gymnastics must have been involved when writing this list considering SQLite was originally built for guided-missile destroyers.
- josefx 5y ago
  As far as I understand the code of conduct is more or less an in joke. They don't have any community integration worth noting as all SQLite contributors are full time employees. It mainly exists to tick of a checkbox in their customers/donors requirements without actually adopting any of the CoCs people kept pushing.
collegeburner 5y ago
I can't respons to randerson's comment directly because it's dead, I'd recommend he look at Aquinas' just war theory and other Christian ideas on when war is ok. There are many problems with the military industrial complex we have but that does not mean we should have no defense. Guided missile destroyers fulfill a legitimate defense role and would be needed even if we were much less interventionist.
- randerson 5y ago
  I didn't dispute whether it can be used for good, I'm glad we have these things and I'm also a huge fan of SQLite. But when your system shoots down an enemy (to you) aircraft, how do you reconcile that with: "Do not murder." "Love your neighbor as yourself." "Honor all people." "Do not do to another what you would not have done to yourself." "Do not return evil for evil." "Love your enemies." the list goes on..
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

pmcollins 5y ago

I always found it interesting that sqlite was released into the public domain only a few days after 9/11. Surely, this was not a coincidence.

leros 5y ago
SQLite feels older to me than that. Weird
- fartcannon 5y ago
  Kids born after 9/11 can drink in most countries at this point. Some will have graduated university and are working among us.
  - loeg 5y ago
    And a lot of kids born before 9/11 don't remember it, and they're in the workforce now.
    - yongjik 5y ago
      Recently saw a Reddit thread with "Were the twin towers famous before they fell?" Felt old.
      - Zandikar 5y ago
        And just to follow up for anyone who may genuinely be wondering: Yes. Yes they were. Not quite as ubiquitous or well known as "9/11" is today, but they were up there with the statue of liberty as far as Icons of NYC and to a slightly lesser extent icons of the USA. They were, as they say, a big deal, even before they fell.
        gjs278 5y ago
        5y ago

thunderbong 5y ago

From the README - > If you are reading this on GitHub or some other Git repository or service, then you are looking at a mirror. The same file from the fossil repository - https://sqlite.org/src/file?name=src/main.c&ci=trunk https://sqlite.org/src/file?name=src/main.c&ci=trunk

inopinatus 5y ago
Thanks, the text was much harder to read in the mirror.

DylanSp 5y ago

Has anyone heard of any issues using SQLite in jurisdictions without a concept of the public domain? The copyright page [1] seems to imply that you'd need to buy a license from Hwaci. [1] https://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html https://www.sqlite.org/copyright.html

stubish 5y ago
Everyone is happily using public domain software in all jurisdictions. The timezone code used by many (all?) Linux and Unix distributions is public domain. If you can find a jurisdiction without the explicit concept of the public domain and judges and lawyers that think there is no implicit concept of the public domain and someone who can claim copyright with a straight face to code that explicitly states that the authors relinquish their claim, then I still suspect it would get thrown out of court and the claimant opening themselves to charges of criminal fraud (entrapment and extortion) or abusing the justice system for profit.
- fanf2 5y ago
  The reason it would fail in court is estoppel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel
- GlitchMr 5y ago
  Entrapment can only be committed by government agents.
sb057 5y ago
It remains an open legal question (at least in the United States) whether or not an author even can voluntarily release something into the public domain. Hwaci could theoretically decide that, actually, that they never really put SQLite in the public domain and in fact possess full copyright over it and would like not only current and future licensing fees, but also retroactive fees from everyone who's used it over the past 20 years without legal permission. Lawsuits ensue, pandemonium happens, etc. However, if you actually did acquire a license from them beforehand (when it was still theoretically free), they'd have no ground to sue and such a case brought against you would be thrown out of court immediately.

durkie 5y ago

I almost feel like SQLite could have documentary made about it at this point. There are so many things about it that are just unique and fascinating.

ridaj 5y ago
There is one https://corecursive.com/066-sqlite-with-richard-hipp/ https://corecursive.com/066-sqlite-with-richard-hipp/ (I liked it)
- twelvechairs 5y ago
  Thanks for the link I very much enjoyed that
- m12k 5y ago
  That story about how Mitchell Baker helped set up the SQLite Consortium is interesting, hadn't heard of that before. She gets a lot of flak for the direction Mozilla has been heading, so it's heartening to hear how she advocated that the Consortium be set up in a way where the developers retain the power.
Areading314 5y ago
I remember several years ago, I was considering pushing for some changes to our application to use a database like sqlite instead of a proprietary flat file format. I remember reading through the source and realizing how beautiful C source code could be, compared to the prop C code I was used to working on. That plus the constant improvement, stellar performance, and beautiful source code make Sqlite one of the top most gems of open-source software in my opinion. Huge props to Dwayne Hipp and the other contributors to this database which has enabled so many apps and products!
- sgbeal 5y ago
  FWIW: when i met drh for the first time in September 2011 i asked him, "what's the D in your name for, if i may ask?" His answer was, "only my mother gets to call me that." PS: He goes by Richard.

nocluuwhat 5y ago

Anyone with a two-liner what this is all about?

dt3ft 5y ago
The author disclaims copyright to their source code. See the actual license here: https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/blob/master/LICENSE.md https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/blob/master/LICENSE.md

ltbarcly3 5y ago

If nobody ever takes more than they give than nobody can give or take anything.

jll29 5y ago

Richard Hipp is a devout Christian, and demonstrates James 2:18: "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." Thanks for the blessings and the beautiful code; you really can be a poet in any language.

hprotagonist 5y ago
take that, sola fide!

hprotagonist 5y ago

was the header really last edited 15 September 2001? I can understand the sentiment even more, if so.