Re: About GPL and proprietary software - Mailing list pgsql-general

After a long battle with technology,ron.l.johnson@cox.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.

When some SAP-DB users proposed writing their own "database drivers"
that talk to SAP-DB (which is being renamed "MaxDB", marketed by MySQL
AB) using network links, and licensing it under the LGPL, so that they
would not be forced to license their own software under the GPL, they
were warned that lawyers might be sent after them for doing this.

All in all, MySQL AB seems pretty jealous about guarding their
proprietary code...

And yes, that's all talking about "someone else's product."  But if
someone comes visiting to figure out whether PostgreSQL might be more
suitable for their purposes, they may have to talk about the "less
suitable" software in order for everyone to see where it fits in.  It
might be that PostgreSQL would NOT be more suitable, but it can take
some discussion to figure it all out.
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