At 7:45 PM +0000 11/9/01, Carl Troein wrote: >Shankar Unni writes: > >> What are the rules about "bundling" now? If we distribute a (standalone) >> copy of MySQL with our product, does that expose our product to the GPL? Or >> is it just like distributing a copy of Emacs with your OS? (I.e. as long as >> you make the source available, it doesn't automatically GPL the rest of >> your OS?) >> >> What if the product is designed to work with many databases, but we want to >> distribute MySQL only as a "default database" (i.e. it doesn't depend on >> MySQL for its functionality - it's merely a convenience)? Does that change >> the GPL liability on our product? >> >> Who can answer these questions? > >I believe the GPL FAQ tries to address these questions: >http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation > >Specifically, this may be of interest to you: >"By contrast, pipes, sockets and command-line arguments are >communication mechanisms normally used between two separate >programs. So when they are used for communication, the >modules normally are separate programs."
Compare that with this section of the manual: http://www.mysql.com/doc/U/s/Using_the_MySQL_server_under_a_commercial_license.html Which says: When you distribute a non-GPL application that ONLY works with the MySQL server and ships it with MySQL. This type of solution is actually considered to be linking even if it's done over a network. I believe that bit about "even if it's done over the network" was added sometime around last December. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, particularly in light of the paragraph from the GPL FAQ. > >//C > >-- > Carl Troein - C̀rdan / Istari-PixelMagic - UIN 16353280 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://pixelmagic.dyndns.org/~cirdan/ > Amiga user since '89, and damned proud of it too. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php
