Read this White Paper on the whole subject. Firebird Firebird server and client are free of all licensing, regardless of whether you download a binary or build it yourself from the source code. Pricing info at the Borland site. . Binaries of the beta versions prior to 12 March 2001 continue to be free of deployment charges. . The time-limited trial version is free.
Deployment is forbidden.
We are in business to make money. We are not currently going to build it for you. We don't run QA tests on the open source. The only way to get Docs is to buy the product. Any FireBird member is welcome to work on InterBase.