Re: About GPL and proprietary software

Marten G Mickos wrote:
> Scott et co.,
>
> Thanks for your comment. Here is my response.
>
> First of all, let's remember that neither I nor MySQL AB (nor any of
> us) is an official authority for interpreting the GPL. Legally,
> affirmative answers can only be given by a competent court. The FSF
> is a natural authority on the GPL and whenever we are in doubt, we
> turn to them for advice. But not being the authority on the topic
> does not reduce our eagerness to discuss this topic!
>
> Robert Treat already pointed out two main points:
> - the GPL kicks in when you DISTRIBUTE
> - the only ones truly suffering from MySQL's licensing policy are the
> ones who try to exploit open source for their own benefit without
> giving anything back to the community
>
>
> When it comes to the issue of linking or not, and the type of
> linking, please have a look at the GPL FAQ on the GNU.org site. Here
> is an important passage from it, showing that it is not only the
> technicalities of the linking, but also the semantics of it. In other
> words, the intent is as important as the method (just like in many
> other issues defined by law - your intent in doing something may
> determine whether it was a crime or not).
>
>
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html
>
> - - -
> What constitutes combining two parts into one program? This is a
> legal question, which ultimately judges will decide. We believe that
> a proper criterion depends both on the mechanism of communication
> (exec, pipes, rpc, function calls within a shared address space,
> etc.) and the semantics of the communication (what kinds of
> information are interchanged).
> - - -

Yes, this is the crux of it. PHP is an interpreted language, so does PHP
code designed to work with MySQL require a commerical license. The
MySQL URL is unclear:

http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing.html

a) If you include the MySQL server in your non Open Source application,
you need a commercial licence for the MySQL server

What does "include" mean? Does it mean having MySQL on the same CDROM?
It then goes on to mention MySQL drivers, and that makese sense, but
again, that assumes dynamic linking spreads the GPL, which is unclear.

What happens if I ship Linux on a CDROM with my close-source
application on the CDROM too? Seems similar.

The fact is the MySQL and the FSF want to make the GPL reach as far as
possible, so there is no attempt to make a reasonable definition. In
fact, they rely on that fuzzy definition, and the threat of legal action
(legal extortion) to further the reach of the GPL as far as possible.
This is what bothers me the most --- license FUD (sounds like a new
term).

No wonder many companies say "no GPL software".

For all those fuzzy cases, the cute line, "To all commercial
organisations we do recommend the commercial licence." meaning "We
recommend you pay us money."

--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
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