Re: About GPL and proprietary software
От | Ron Johnson |
---|---|
Тема | Re: About GPL and proprietary software |
Дата | |
Msg-id | 1062369677.7342.67.camel@haggis обсуждение исходный текст |
Ответ на | Re: About GPL and proprietary software (Christopher Browne <cbbrowne@acm.org>) |
Список | pgsql-general |
On Sun, 2003-08-31 at 14:59, Christopher Browne wrote: > 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. That "_by whatever means_" seems to include "network link", and that doesn't sound right. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net Jefferson, LA USA "Man, I'm pretty. Hoo Hah!" Johnny Bravo
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