After doing a little research on this I still wasn't getting a clear
picture, so I wrote to someone at MySQL AB (I found an e-mail address
for someone who seemed to welcome questions on the Web). I presented
what I thought were some typical scenarios of MySQL use (such as JDBC
applications and desktop apps that used an embedded database) and asked
him to please identify what the developer's obligations or
responsibilities would be in each scenario with regard to licensing. I
also told him I would like to share his answers with people on this list
if he didn't mind. So far (after two days) I haven't received a response.
The one paragraph I have found that sticks out to me is this one
(http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/opensource-license.html):
"Free use for those who never copy, modify or distribute. As long as you
never distribute 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."
I get the feeling that the GPL restrictions (at least in MySQL's case)
are meant for those who are taking the database and specializing it for
their business (by altering or extending the source code) not just
merely using it to power the data access layer of a site architecture
(or even a desktop application with an embedded model -- but it depends
on what they mean by "distribute"; On another note, what if you had a
proprietary "system" that used a central MySQL server, but was meant to
be set up on many small networks?). To me that paragraph means you can
build a proprietary application that "uses MySQL as the database"
without having to buy a commercial license from MySQL.
You might say "that's obvious", but it seems to me like MySQL has been
moving toward a more restrictive model lately . . .
Someone please correct me if you understand their policy differently.
Erik
Dave Newton wrote:
Fogleson, Allen wrote:
"These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and
can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
sections when you distribute them as separate works."
From: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLInProprietarySystem
"However, in many cases you can distribute the GPL-covered software
alongside your proprietary system. To do this validly, you must make
sure that the free and non-free programs communicate at arms length,
that they are not combined in a way that would make them effectively a
single program.
The difference between this and "incorporating" the GPL-covered
software is partly a matter of substance and partly form. The
substantive part is this: if the two programs are combined so that
they become effectively two parts of one program, then you can't treat
them as two separate programs. So the GPL has to cover the whole thing.
If the two programs remain well separated, like the compiler and the
kernel, or like an editor and a shell, then you can treat them as two
separate programs--but you have to do it properly. The issue is simply
one of form: how you describe what you are doing. Why do we care about
this? Because we want to make sure the users clearly understand the
free status of the GPL-covered software in the collection."
From: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation
" If the modules are included in the same executable file, they are
definitely combined in one program. If modules are designed to run
linked together in a shared address space, that almost surely means
combining them into one program."
Like Craig says, this is an interesting issue with Java (and, I guess,
shared libraries in general). And it's _still_ never been clear to me
what, exactly, it means with regards to web applications.
Dave
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