On Mon, Aug 02, 2004 at 03:11:10PM -0500, mos wrote: > At 03:41 AM 8/2/2004, Jeremy Zawodny wrote: > > > >I bet it depends on the country. In the USA, companies are considered > >singular legal entities. "Internal distribution" is aking to giving > >copies to yourself. > > > >The GPL doesn't restrict that. > > > Well, I'm not so sure. Here it is straight from the horses mouth namely > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >> > "Free use for those who never copy, > modify or distribute. As long as you never distribute (internally or > externally) the MySQL Software in any way, you are free to use it for > powering your application, irrespective of whether your application is under > GPL license or not," > http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/opensource-license.html.
Yes, I've read that bit of the web site before. > You notice they say "never distribute (internally or externally) the > MySQL software in any way..". I don't know if the "MySQL Software" > they are referring to are the MySQL libraries libmysql.dll or > libmysqld.dll files which is needed to run most MySQL applications, > or any file that comes from MySQL AB. Given that all of the code is licensed under the GPL, it hardly matters which "piece" they're talking about. The GPL does not disallow me making a copy of libmysqlclient.so and putting it on a second machine. If you think it does, I'd like to know *where* in the GPL you (or whoever) sees it. From what the GPL FAQ tells me: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html Does the GPL allow me to require that anyone who receives the software must pay me a fee and/or notify me? No. In fact, a requirement like that would make the program non-free. If people have to pay when they get a copy of a program, or if they have to notify anyone in particular, then the program is not free. See the definition of free software. The GPL is a free software license, and therefore it permits people to use and even redistribute the software without being required to pay anyone a fee for doing so. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowRequireFee To argue otherwise (as some at MySQL AB seem intent on doing) is absurd. While their CEO speaks and conferences about the success of "open source business models" another arm of their organization seems to be trying hard to warp the GPL to suit their sales targets. And, quite frankly, I'm sick of it. > I agree with you that it is rather stringent to prevent internal > distribution of a MySQL application within a company, and I see no > logical reason for preventing it. Probably because there isn't one. :-) > As I read it, the language they're using prevents the finance > department from receiving a copy of the database and application > from the sales department. Right. Of course, every department is free to download a copy from the MySQL web site, right? Jeremy -- Jeremy D. Zawodny | Perl, Web, MySQL, Linux Magazine, Yahoo! <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | http://jeremy.zawodny.com/ [book] High Performance MySQL -- http://highperformancemysql.com/ -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
