Re: Humor me: Postgresql vs. MySql (esp. licensing) - Mailing list pgsql-general

Randolf Richardson <rr@8x.ca> writes:
>> I _don't_ think what MySQL AB is doing with it is quite what was
>> intended, but the various side-effects that you see are, by and
>> large, quite intentional, even the ones that don't play into
>> scenarios of Richard Stallman as "Evil Overlord."
>
>         The big question is this:  Has the GPL been violated by MySQL?

The MySQL AB interpretation that any use of their software under the
GPL inherits to mandating that your software be licensed under the GPL
certainly seems controversial.

<http://slashdot.org/interviews/00/05/01/1052216.shtml>

In that interview, the indication is that by separating components
into "client" and "server" bits, using CORBA, the GPL can be
circumvented because the client and server aren't "linked."  Which is
the opposite of what MySQL AB is telling people.

The MySQL AB strategy doesn't seem to involve the "client-vs-server"
issue.  Arguing that your client must be GPL-licensed because the
server is wouldn't fly terribly far.  Instead, they only provide
_client_ software in GPL-licensed form, as _that_ would "taint" the
software you might link to it such that it would have to be
GPL-licensed.

<http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=sapdb-general&m=106045880005921&w=2>

What is very interesting is that they oppose attempts to circumvent
this by someone prepared to write their own client.  (The discussion
came up when SAP-DB users were distressed that they would no longer be
able to get a LGPL-licensed client library, and were discussing the
possibility of writing their own...)

  "In this case, I would suspect that the intent of your middleware is
  what would matter most in a court case. If the middleware appears to
  mostly be in place to circumvent licensing restrictions, then it (I
  believe) would not circumvent the license.  If the middleware is an
  abstraction layer that simply allows for convenient access to a
  variety of different data sources, then the license might be
  circumvented."  -- Zak Greant <zak@mysql.com>

What is also very interesting is that many/most of the uses of "client
libraries" get embedded into PHP/Perl/Python modules, which leads to a
mishmash of licenses that may (as with PHP) make redistribution of the
client libraries nonpermissible.

Long and short...  No, I don't see that the GPL has been "violated."

But if the GPL is intended as a 'protector/encourager of free
software,' their use of it seems to me to be about as distant from
that _intent_ as possible.
--
let name="cbbrowne" and tld="ntlug.org" in name ^ "@" ^ tld;;
http://www3.sympatico.ca/cbbrowne/postgresql.html
If the FreeBSD  team could get away  with it, they would  probably use
warnings  like "Contains  live  plague   bacteria.  Beware  the  Rabid
Hippopotami.  May cause nausea and vomiting."
-- Michael Lucas, re: FreeBSD-CURRENT