
jesus at omniti
Feb 4, 2004, 9:17 AM
Post #4 of 10
(1524 views)
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Re: RELEASE - v0.21 beta - Qmail, Sendmail support
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On Wed, 2004-02-04 at 10:35, wayne wrote: > > MySQL's license doesn't says I can't write my own MySQL client library > > to log these things and distribute it with our product. > > Correct. You'd think... > > However, the > > people at MySQL maintain their license (GPL) prohibits this. > > This is incorrect. MySQL has a dual license. It is available under > both the GPL and a commercial license, you get to choose which. Who did you talk to at MySQL that said something different? Who said that my writing and distributing a non-GPL, from-scratch library that talks to a MySQL server would be "okay"? I would like to know for future reference. I am not talking about the commercial license. I am talking about the GPL. The fact that they dual license is irrelevant to my argument. I choose the GPL and I choose to not use (or reference) their code and write my own implementation of a mysql client talking over TCP/IP to their server. Their claim is that my actions result in a derivative work. A detailed discussions of this (with voices of MySQL reps) is available at: http://www.edwardbear.org/serendipity/archives/1193_My_Beef_with_MySQLs_License.html The whole discussion is interesting, but #4 and #8 are particularly beefy. MySQL claims that a dependence on their software is a derivative work, while the GPL says that linking constitutes that. > > Something > > about the GPL applying to the use of the database and that any access of > > the database would violate the GPL. > > If you use a library that is not in the public domain (e.g. it has a > license), then you must follow the terms of that license in the > resulting combined code (the executable). This is because the > resulting combined code is a derivative work of both the library and > of the code you have created. Not sure what you are talking about. The library I spoke of was written here (given the topic sentence of my previous mail). It would is "derived" from the output tcpdump. And given that for transformed works, the copyright of the output maintains the copyright of the input, it would stand to reason that the tcpdump output is copyright me because it is nearly 100% my queries and 100% my data set as results. > Since MySQL chose to release their libraries under a dual > GPL/commercial license, you need to make the choice of buying a copy > of the commercial product, or make sure your product is using an open > source license. Again dual licensing has nothing to do with it. > > Last time I checked, the GPL is a > > copyright and they can't copyright an idea nor my work -- which leaves > > them out of luck. > > The GPL makes no claim to copyrighting an idea, nor your work. The > GPL also, however, doesn't allow you to do whatever you want with the > code. They claim an "from-scratch" client library that accesses a MySQL server is a derived work -- additionally, their viewpoint is supported by the FSF. See the previous link. > > I wish they would amend their license with something like: "you must > > distribute a commercial client license with any product released under > > an non-GPL compatible license that accesses a non-commercially licensed > > MySQL database." Then I would just buy licenses. As it is now, their > > stance concerns and confuses me and I tend not to purchase things while > > concerned or confused. > > That is pretty much what MySQL says. See > http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing.html Thanks for making my point. That's what they say "about" their licensing... but that _is not_ what the GPL says which _IS_ their licensing. Hence the discrepancy and confusion. Again, I like MySQL and I like the people at MySQL. I like their philosophy as well. There still no excuse for distributing MySQL under the GPL and arguing that it marries up well with their philosophy when it simply doesn't. -- // Theo Schlossnagle // Principal Engineer -- http://www.omniti.com/~jesus/ // Postal Engine -- http://www.postalengine.com/ // Ecelerity: fastest MTA on earth ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname@`{5wSӰ)h
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