On Wed, 2003-10-08 at 16:23, Joshua D. Drake wrote: > Here is the simple thing about MySQL licensing. It is GPL. If you > modify the mySQL source or you link a proprietary app to mySQL without > a commercial license. You must distrubute your changes and or > application as GPL or GPL compatibile.
You have two contradictory statements here, which unfortunately represent the internal contradictions in MySQL's license (at least, those versions after version 3.23.19, when MySQL AB adopted the current licensing scheme). Certainly, if MySQL is licensed under the GPL, you must distribute or make available source code to any changed version of MySQL that you distribute, or any other derivative works of MySQL that you distribute. However, MySQL's stated license makes far greater requirements on those who use MySQL. Even though many distributors of MySQL, including the normally very license-conscious Debian GNU/Linux, include only the GPL as its license, there are in fact additional constraints which limit the rights that are given by the GPL. MySQL AB's license information web page [1] includes in plain language what their intent is, and that intent is not the GPL, nor is it compatible with the GPL. The non-commercial (free-of-charge) MySQL license extends the requirement to make available source code to "your application", regardless of whether or not your application is a derived work of MySQL. All practical interpretations of the GPL, including the FSF's, exclude from the requirement to distribute source code any works that are collected by "simple aggregation", meaning they are present on the same distribution medium or in the same distribution package as the licensed work, but are not related to the licensed work by the sharing of licensed components. MySQL does not distinguish between derivative works of MySQL and those that are collected along with it by simple aggregation. So, for example, if I wish to sell a version of Debian with a proprietary, closed-source installation tool (which does not use or relate to MySQL in any way) and I wish to also include MySQL and its source code in my distribution, I am required to get a commercial license from MySQL. That is not consistent with the terms of the GPL under which I received MySQL from Debian. I don't know how to put it more plainly than that. Even though MySQL AB claims that their product is licensed under the GPL, it is not, because they put significant additional license terms on it that remove some rights given by the GPL. The overall license terms of MySQL do not meet any standard of "Free software" licenses that I know, including the Debian Free Software Guidelines [2]. I believe that Debian and other GNU/Linux distributions should move MySQL to their non-free sections, along with other software that is "free for non-commercial use". The consequences for any commercial enterprise using MySQL in any way must be very closely examined, and certainly aren't obvious in the way that the consequences of the GPL are obvious. Thanks, Bill Gribble [1] http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing.html [2] http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings