On Fri, Nov 29, 2002 at 10:30:58PM -0600, Mark Matthews wrote: > If you are not sure exactly how the GPL works, and you have read the > license terms that I've referenced above, and still want to distribute > your software that uses and/or links to software licensed under the GPL, > I suggest you first seek a lawyer's opinion, and have it explained to > you in non-legalese. I also highly recommend you actually ask a lawyer. However, a few points need to be made:
1) Install the MySQL software on the user's machine as part of a distro they pay for (like RedHat) instead of distributing it yourself. 2) Connecting to MySQL is _not_ the same as linking against it or modifying it in some way. Storing data and fetching data using MySQL connections is completely unrestricted by the GPL (IANAL, but this is obvious). 3) Tell your users to pay the distro and MySQL AB for support of those subsystems if they have the money and run critical / semi-critical operations. You'll be putting their best interests forward and you don't have to worry (IMHO) about MySQL AB trying to compete with you or replace you (like IBM, or Oracle, or ...). 4) Be a good Free Software citizen; buy your distro CDs, buy MySQL AB support, etc. -- Michael T. Babcock CTO, FibreSpeed Ltd. (Hosting, Security, Consultation, Database, etc) http://www.fibrespeed.net/~mbabcock/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php
