Re: About GPL and proprietary software

On Sun, 2003-08-31 at 14:59, Christopher Browne wrote:
> After a long battle with technology,ron(dot)l(dot)johnson(at)cox(dot)net (Ron Johnson), an earthling, wrote:
> > On Sun, 2003-08-31 at 07:26, Kaarel wrote:
> >> I don't feel very confident when it comes to software licenses. But
> >> there are some cases I would like to make myself clear. What I am
> >> particulary interested in is when does GPL license become restrictive?
> >> For example say a company has a proprietary software product that only
> >> works with MySQL and no other database system. Are the following cases
> >> legal?
> >> 1) This company sells his product under proprietary license and leaves
> >> it up to the client to set up required MySQL server. Or perhaps helps
> >> the client with seting up MySQL with or without extra fee.
> >> 2) Clients pay monthly fee to this company for using their proprietary
> >> software which uses MySQL hosted in the companys server.
> >> 3) This company sells his product under proprietary license on the CD
> >> which also includes MySQL as free bonus (with source code).
> >>
> >> If these cases are valid, then when does GPL license for MySQL (or any
> >> other software in that matter) become truly restrictive for a
> >> proprietary company?
> >
> > Why are you asking about MySQL (a GPL-licensed product), on a
> > PostgreSQL (a BSD-licensed product) mailing list????
> >
> > Be that as it may:
> > IANAL, but according to my understanding
> > (1) proprietary s/w that dynamically links to "GPL" shared libraries
> > has not broken the GPL.
> > (2) proprietary s/w that *statically* links to "GPL" libraries has
> > broken the GPL.
> > (3) proprietary s/w that "speaks" to "GPL" s/w via a pipe, network
> > link, etc., does not break the GPL.
> >
> > Presumably, one of the reasons that PostgreSQL is BSD-licensed is
> > to avoid issues like this.
>
> While your understanding is common, it does not appear to conform with
> the understanding that MySQL AB has of how the GPL applies to their
> product. They appear to think that software that "speaks to" their
> database, _by whatever means_, needs to be licensed under the GPL.

That "_by whatever means_" seems to include "network link", and that
doesn't sound right.

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Ron Johnson, Jr. ron(dot)l(dot)johnson(at)cox(dot)net
Jefferson, LA USA

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