Re: [naviserver-devel] mysql?

[Stephen D. <sd...@gm...>]

On 4/6/07, Zoran Vasiljevic <zv...@ar...> wrote:
>
> Am 06.04.2007 um 15:54 schrieb Stephen Deasey:
>
> > Yeah, you can buy  a licence for yourself, but you still can't release
> > the driver to the public non-GPL (assuming the libs are still GPL
> > only).
>
> This is what I doubt: "assuming the libs are still GPL only"
>
> Look: if they licensed ALL their libs as GPL then I know of
> at least a dozen of commercial products that embedd (and
> deliver in a shrinkwrapped package) mysql database and code.
> According to that, all those guys would be actually violating
> GPL? I cannot simply believe that. If this IS really true then
> I peacefully accept ourselves be just one of the MANY.
> But I seriously doubt so.


The MySQL driver libs are GPL. They licenced them this way (they used
to be public domain IIRC) exactly to create the situation you suggest
-- that people would be forced to buy a licence if they didn't want to
GPL their linked program.

I only remember this because there was a lot of loud complaining at
the time, and PHP stopped shipping the MySQL driver.

What I wasn't aware of was that they've introduced a special
exception. I guess this is how they resolved the issue:

    http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/foss-exception.html

So, looks like the driver can be dual Mozilla/GPL like the rest of the
code (assuming Dossy agrees).