> What does internal distribution mean? Is it another thing than copying?
I've wondered that myself.
See
http://www.gnu.org or
http://www.fsf.org
to get more information on the GPL. Licensing, etc., is explained on
their site,
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Licensing_and_Support.html
and they tend to be willing to answer questions if you send mail to
their sales crew.
Remember that publishing and distribution are two separate things.
I think they used not to be very concerned about internal distribution,
except in cases where the numbers were large, but I think their lawyers
and business people having been pushing them to avoid ambiguities.
> Consider this example:
>
> A company has 2 database servers and want to install MySQL on both servers.
> Is MySQL free for the first server, but require a license for the second
> server? Or are MySQL free for both servers?
Don't get me started.
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Using_the_MySQL_software_under_a_commercial_license.html
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Using_the_MySQL_software_for_free_under_GPL.html
It looks to me as if distributing a modified version of MySQL appears to
require either the use of the GPL on your modifications or the purchase
of a license for each copy distributed.
Modification includes linking an application to either MySQL or to one
of the MySQL provided drivers. A GPL compatible license may also be used,
I think, and if that path is chosen, it must be applied to all of your
application source.
Previously, the drivers were under the LGPL, which allowed linking an
application that was not GPL compatibly licensed, and that was
significantly easier to work with.
Apparently (without further elucidation from MySQL) you can't distribute
PHP linked with the new versions of the drivers (or even to libraries
designed to work only with parts of the driver API that are uniquely
MySQL's and therefore covered by MySQL's copyright).
As a result, PHP 4 is distributed with libraries linked to the old
drivers, and PHP 5 is distributed without the MySQL specific drivers
directly linked. So the end user of an app written for PHP 5 must
install MySQL and its drivers; separately install PHP and either compile
the MySQL libraries in or, for MSWindows, set it up to use the MySQL
shared libraries dll; and then install the app.
You could provide an installer to install both PHP and the app, I think,
but the installer for MySQL would have to be separate. (And if you built
your own separate installer for MySQL, the installer would have to be
under the GPL.)
This would be because PHP is not under the GPL license, but under the
PHP license, which does not require modifications to be published under
a GPL compatible license in order to be distributed.
If you use a generic driver, you may be able to avoid the GPL effects,
but that's really beside the point.
If it makes you money, and if you want it to continue to make you money,
logic itself requires you to send some of the action back to the people
that build it. In MySQL's case, the people who build it have set up a
licensing program to make it easier to cooperate financially and
technically.
<rant>
If you used, for instance, PostGreSQL, even though that license does not
place any publishing or licensing requirements on linked code, the logic
remains. Support the developers, or expect to find yourself stuck
without support. Vote with your money, so to speak.
(As I see it, the two specific advantages of open source and free
software are, first, you can legally modify it to your own purposes, and,
second, you can usually set up some way to get a good start without
paying through the teeth just for the right to find out if your project
is going to roll like a tank or roll in the tank. The concept of making
money with no expenses at all is a mirage, and a dangerous one, and when
you hear the suits talk about "frictionless economy", tell them to take
their manure generators elsewhere.)
</rant>
--
Joel Rees, programmer, Kansai Systems Group
Altech Corporation (Alpsgiken), Osaka, Japan
http://www.alpsgiken.co.jp
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