Hi HBasers,
We are working on a product shipping to our customer as a commercial product,
which is unlike most of you guys who use it as an in-house tool and build
solution on top of it internally. Therefore, here I have a specific question
about GPL licensing issue about the LZO codec. (It is definitely not a concern
to most of you guys, but I'd doubt check here)
First, here is how we use HBase. All of our development work is in application
level, i.e., our business logic code runs within the JVM that an HBase client
runs on (we have some M/R code, but MR task JVMs are also simply HBase clients,
so I'd say it's same as my Put/Delete HBase logic).
I understand that the LZO codec and its Java wrapper are GPL licensed. And my
limited understanding toward GPL is that "you are required to GPL your code,
i.e., open the source of it, if you link your logic to the GPL modules", but
you are not required to do so if your server communicate to the GPL component
with RPC/HTTP and etc.
Here is my understanding but I am not really sure about it: 1) RegionServer
is the process that uses ('links to') the LZO codec, and the JVM that HBase
client runs in communicates with RS (the process 'links to' GPL module) through
RPCs. 2) Therefore, my business logic is not shipped under the 'linked' mode.
So, I feel this is an OK case for me, i.e., I have not violate the GPL license.
But I'd like to doubt check with the experience community users. Please kindly
provide your comments.
Many thanks,Sean
