I've reached out to a lawyer friend to see if he can give us some guidance. Until then, let's avoid making a recommendation either way.
Jacob On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 10:01 AM, Aymeric Augustin <aymeric.augus...@polytechnique.org> wrote: > 2013/5/10 Aymeric Augustin <aymeric.augus...@polytechnique.org> >> >> > Also actively developed by @geertjanvdk at Oracle so he may be able to >> > help with any issues? >> >> If he has the power to switch to a license that makes it possible to use >> his code, like the LGPL, that would be fantastic. I can't tell if he chose >> the GPL to make a point or by accident; I'm going to ask him. > > > I got an answer today. The license will not be changed. I was asked not to > publish our discussion. > > Specifically, MySQL Connector/Python is released under GNU GPLv2 with FOSS > exception. > > The FOSS exception only applies to redistributing MySQL Connector/Python, > which we don't intend to do anyway. > > > To sum up, the scenario I'm worried about is the following. A company > develops a product based on Django + MySQL and distributes it to its > customers. Currently, the product can be distributed under any license. If > we switch to MySQL Connector/Python in Django, then the product must be > licensed under the GPLv2 or a compatible license. Once again I'm not a > lawyer and I may be wrong, I don't know where the line lies exactly, but > that could create a legal trap for some users of Django. > > I don't want to add a warning along the lines of "be careful, if you use > MySQL, the licensing terms change!" in our docs. I'm not even sure how to > write it without falling into FUD. > > So at this point I see two solutions: > - a core dev (not me!) feels sufficiently confident that this isn't an issue > to add such a backend to Django itself. That's Oracle's theory, as far as I > understand. > - someone writes an external MySQL Connector/Python backend, probably based > on the MyQSLdb backend. That keeps the licensing issue outside of Django. > > I'm leaving this here, if someone wants to take over, the ground is yours! > > -- > Aymeric. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Django developers" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to django-developers@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.