On Sat, 2002-11-30 at 10:51, Mark wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mark Matthews" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Pae Choi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: "Tonu Samuel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Darney Lampert" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Saturday, November 30, 2002 5:30 AM > Subject: Re: LEGAL information about MySQL. > > > > 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. > > Are you suggesting that every program that uses MySQL has to be GPL?? I > doubt that. If so, you are effectively saying, for instance, that no program > written in Perl could ever be non-GPL (as all Perl scripts use/link to GPL > Perl). And this is, of course, not the case. There are many commercial > products out there, like Perl debuggers, for example, that are definitely > NOT licenced GPL, yet still use/link to Perl.
With MySQL 4.0 that has a GPL client every program that is distributed linked with MySQL needs to be under a GPL compatible license. We will extend the compatibility to cover a given set of OSI (opensource.org) approved licenses. As for Perl is has two licenses one which is less restrictive than the GPL. > I read the MySQL Licensing Policy, and, to me, it said: "If your application > is NOT licensed under GPL or compatible OSI license approved by MySQL AB and > you intend to distribute MySQL software (be that internally or externally), > you must first obtain a commercial license to the MySQL software in > question." > > The licence talks about DISTRIBUTING the MySQL software itself; or, as it > says, "More specifically: a) If you include the MySQL server in your non > Open Source application, you need a commercial licence for the MySQL server, > b) If you include one of the MySQL drivers in your non Open Source > application (so that your application can run with MySQL), you need a > commercial licence for the driver(s) in question. The MySQL drivers > currently include an ODBC driver, a JDBC driver and the C language library." > > Except, of course, that most people do NOT distribute MySQL software, or > drivers with their own programs. Besides, if I write a program in Perl, > which > uses MySQL, it is still Perl that distributes drivers and such. My OWN > program does no such thing. My program just says: "Use DBI;". Sorry, but MySQL is a part of the combined work. So if you distribute a Perl program that is indirectly linked with MySQL you need to distribute the source of you program. /David MySQL Co-Founder --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
