Let me attempt to provide some clarity on this issues (though it is important to note that I am not a lawyer or a judge.)
The fundaments of the GPL are easy to understand.
The GPL operates within standard copyright law.
Under copyright law[0], the copyright holder has a bundle of rights related to their work.
These rights including the right to control the copying, modification and distribution of their work.
The holder can keep these right or they can grant others some or all of the rights as well.
If they grant others rights to their work, they usually do so under the terms of a license.
The GPL is one such license. It gives you the right to copy, modify and distribute the work as long as you follow some conditions. The important conditions for this discussion are:
* You must distribute (or at least make available) the source code for the software.
* If you form a derivative work with GPL licensed software, then the resulting work should also be GPL licensed. [1]
Derivative work is a term from US copyright law (though most copyright laws have some similar concept). A derivative work is a work that is based in whole or in part on another work.
There are no fixed rules on determining when a derivative work is formed. In some cases, it is very clear. If I were to modify GCC by changing a few constant names, it would certainly be a derivative work. If I had a program that used a database abstraction layer to allow it to communicate with a broad class of databases, maybe I would not be forming a derivative work with any of the databases. If I used an abstraction layer to specifically avoid creating a derivative work, but my product was intended to only work with one database, then it would be a different situation again.
The technical process used (linking methods, abstraction layers, communication layers, ...) cannot be the only determining factor of whether a derivative work is or is not formed. If it were, then it would allow software licenses (both free and non-free) to be easily circumvented. Instead the end intent of the action must be taken into account.
A good analogy for this is the case of someone dying due to someone else's actions. Consider the following cases:
I drop a heavy potted plant on David. (He has a great comics collection that I covet. ;)
I ask Mark to drop a heavy potted plant out the window, but I don't tell him that David will likely be killed by this.
Mark falls out of the window because the plant is really heavy.
David shoots Marks because he thinks that he is going to drop a potted plant on him.
Which of the above is murder? Who is responsible? It really depends on how much is known about each situation. If David shoots Mark, and Mark is the only person who knew that I asked him to drop the plant out the window, then I would seem to be innocent (unless I was recorded urging Mark to drop the pot or I confessed).
The context that an event occurs in has a tremendous effect on how it is perceived.
My view on this issue are quite simple: If you are willing to pass on the rights that we grant you under the GPL, then please use MySQL under the GPL. If you do not want to pass on these rights then you should purchase a commercial license.
In many ways, MySQL behaves like a typical Free Software/Open Source developer. We write software that we place under an open license. We also sell services and software so that we can make money. It just so happens that the same software that we put under an open license is the same software that we sell.
[0] Note that different countries have different copyright laws. The exact bundle of rights and how they are protected vary from country to country.
[1] A relevant section of the GPL is section 2b: 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
...
b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
parties under the terms of this License.Cheers! -- Zak Greant MySQL AB Community Advocate
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