Re: [lazarus] Using MySQL

2006-03-06 Thread Mattias Gaertner
On Mon, 6 Mar 2006 13:24:09 +0200
"A.J. Venter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> On Monday 06 March 2006 13:15, Andreas Berger wrote:
> > A few years back I went to a trade show where I met a representative of
> > MySQL. Since MySQL is not free for comercial applications I asked him if
> > I could use Delphi (at the time) that supports MySQL to write an app
> > that uses MySQL and distribute it. He answered: "only if you supply the
> > souce to the app as well". I then asked if I could distribute the app
> > and let the client download and install MySQL seperatly. He said no
> > since the component used by Delphi was GPL and therefore forced me to
> > distribute my sourcecode anyway.
> >
> > My question: does anyone know how this issue stands with Lazarus?
> Same rules, lazarus is lgpl but the mysql libraries it uses are GPL´d -
> you don´t need anything from the lazarus guys to create a closed source
> mysql  based app - but you are linking against a GPL´d library - and that
> requires  the permission of the copyright holder - e.g. mysql inc.
> 
> So to put it another way, the catch is with libmysqlclient.so which is
> gpl´d  and that means any app linked against it MUST be gpl´d as well, you
> need a  commercial license from mysql if you want to write a non-gpl´d
> program using  it. 
> The lazarus mysql components are NOT affected since they do not link
> against  the library - they merely translate the function names and then
> use an  external call to implement them - your program which uses that 
> unit/components however DOES get linked against it.
> 
> Only question is whether this means the lazarus IDE gets linked against 
> libmysqlclient when the mysql support for the IDE is compiled.
> 
> Even then at worst we may have to say the IDE is gpld and the LCL is lgpld
> -  it can´t have any wider impact than that and I don´t see how that can
> affect  anything, after all nobody is building a proprietory derivative of
> the IDE -  we are building apps with the LCL.

The IDE and the codetools are GPL anyway. The IDEIntf is modified LGPL.

Mattias

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Re: [lazarus] Using MySQL

2006-03-06 Thread Micha Nelissen

Andreas Berger wrote:
and let the client download and install MySQL seperatly. He said no 
since the component used by Delphi was GPL and therefore forced me to 
distribute my sourcecode anyway.


My question: does anyone know how this issue stands with Lazarus?


The same because probably the mysql client library is licensed under the 
GPL and when you link to it, then your app needs to be licensed under 
the GPL as well.


To solve this, you need to reimplement the mysql client library 
"clean-room" (that means, using the protocol specification only) that 
talks to the server, under another license; BSD or the modified LGPL 
license we use, for example.


Micha

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Re: [lazarus] Using MySQL

2006-03-06 Thread A.J. Venter
On Monday 06 March 2006 13:15, Andreas Berger wrote:
> A few years back I went to a trade show where I met a representative of
> MySQL. Since MySQL is not free for comercial applications I asked him if
> I could use Delphi (at the time) that supports MySQL to write an app
> that uses MySQL and distribute it. He answered: "only if you supply the
> souce to the app as well". I then asked if I could distribute the app
> and let the client download and install MySQL seperatly. He said no
> since the component used by Delphi was GPL and therefore forced me to
> distribute my sourcecode anyway.
>
> My question: does anyone know how this issue stands with Lazarus?
Same rules, lazarus is lgpl but the mysql libraries it uses are GPL´d - you
don´t need anything from the lazarus guys to create a closed source mysql 
based app - but you are linking against a GPL´d library - and that requires 
the permission of the copyright holder - e.g. mysql inc.

So to put it another way, the catch is with libmysqlclient.so which is gpl´d 
and that means any app linked against it MUST be gpl´d as well, you need a 
commercial license from mysql if you want to write a non-gpl´d program using 
it. 
The lazarus mysql components are NOT affected since they do not link against 
the library - they merely translate the function names and then use an 
external call to implement them - your program which uses that 
unit/components however DOES get linked against it.

Only question is whether this means the lazarus IDE gets linked against 
libmysqlclient when the mysql support for the IDE is compiled.

Even then at worst we may have to say the IDE is gpld and the LCL is lgpld - 
it can´t have any wider impact than that and I don´t see how that can affect 
anything, after all nobody is building a proprietory derivative of the IDE - 
we are building apps with the LCL.

Ciao
A.J.

-- 
"80% Of a hardware engineer's job is application of the uncertainty principle.
80% of a software engineer's job is pretending this isn't so."
A.J. Venter
Chief Software Architect
OpenLab International
http://www.getopenlab.com   | +27 82 726 5103 (South Africa)
http://www.silentcoder.co.za| +55 118 162 2079 (Brazil)

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[lazarus] Using MySQL

2006-03-06 Thread Andreas Berger
A few years back I went to a trade show where I met a representative of 
MySQL. Since MySQL is not free for comercial applications I asked him if 
I could use Delphi (at the time) that supports MySQL to write an app 
that uses MySQL and distribute it. He answered: "only if you supply the 
souce to the app as well". I then asked if I could distribute the app 
and let the client download and install MySQL seperatly. He said no 
since the component used by Delphi was GPL and therefore forced me to 
distribute my sourcecode anyway.


My question: does anyone know how this issue stands with Lazarus?

Regards,
Andreas

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