> IANAL but IIRC > publishing means to create a copy of something on a medium and > distribution means to deliver that medium to someone else.
IAANAL, but IIRC publishing means to place a work in a "public place", ergo, for people to view, hear, or otherwise become an audience or witness to. Roughly speaking. Copying and distributing are only relevant to publishing to the extent that they are used in placing the work in the public place. Current US copyright law recognizes the concept of publishing a work "privately", and thus copying for personal purposes and internal distribution become subject to copyright restrictions. <rant> I personally think the US (and other countries who joined with the US in it) have taken a seriously wrong turn on that, because there's no clear way to avoid trying to prevent people from thinking copyrighted thoughts, but that has nothing to do with copying and distributing software. Freedom and the fate of nations hang in the balance, as our lawyers try to walk that tightrope. They need to back up, recognize magnetic domains and optical fields and structures built of them as physical objects, and re-build the copyright laws from scratch, and quit trying to make it possible to patent and copyright ideas. </rant> Anyway, yes, consult a lawyer and the sales staff if you really must squeeze close to the line with the GPL. But it's usually cheaper to just buy the license, and buying the license does have the benefit of supporting the people who are building your tools. -- Joel Rees, programmer, Kansai Systems Group Altech Corporation (Alpsgiken), Osaka, Japan http://www.alpsgiken.co.jp -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
