Apologies, that was a bad choice of words on my behalf, but it was 3 AM :) First and foremost, let me assure you that I have no delusions of the GPL - I've followed quite a few GPL violation situations (such as Sveasoft) and am a strong open source advocate. That said, what I should have said in my last message was "If you use any of their code (you include their header files, you link to their binaries), then you are subject to the terms of their license." As with everyone else, IANAL, but I know this to be the case from a few things... first and foremost is an article published in Linux Format's sister magazine a few months back on reverse engineering/the DMCA - it mentioned specifically the reasons for clean room reverse engineering something (for example creating a new NTFS driver, open sourced) as opposed to reusing the existing binary (ala Captive). The next point is a real life situation - Microsoft recently released a great deal more information about their Office formats, but to use them you must accept their license and comply to its terms (one of which restricts open source programs from using the extra info).
I can't speak as to whether MySQL's licenses are GPL compatible or not, but they're the terms MySQL has set down and so we must comply. P.S. The DMCA might have been a red herring in my message, but there's no mention of interoperability in the GPL - it's in the DMCA :P On 8/3/05, Jeff Fearn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Again the note that no one here is a lawyer, so either get a lawyer or > simply don't use software written by arseholes who give mixed > messages. > > On 8/3/05, Predatory Kangaroo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > you must not have gained any of the knowledge you need for > > this from the GPLed MySQL - if you do, then your software is indeed a > > derivative work, > > This is rubbish, it's called interoperable and it has nothing to do > with being a derivative. Something that uses another application > through an interface, published or otherwise, is not a derivative > regardless of whether the developer wants you to believe that or not. > > It's one of myths about the GPL that annoys me, it's not viral to use > GPL'd applications in your system, ever, period, unless you MODIFY the > GPL'd software and even then ONLY your mods to the GPL'd software are > covered by the GPL, NOT the other applications you distribute with it. > MySQL simply want to cloud the issue as they wish to make a profit, > which is fine, but their position is legally very questionable ... now > if only I had the dollars to challenge them ;) > > DMCA is a red herring in this discussion. > > Having said that, anyone making free, non-gpl'd software would be > stupid, very stupid, to use MySQL instead of postgresql because of > this situation. > > Jeff > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please > visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders > > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
