Re: About GPL and proprietary software

FYI

In answer to Kaarel's question

Kaarel wrote:
> Would a perl application using DBI have a similar problem? Or how would
> one then legally use PHP with MySQL without GPL-ing your product and
> without buying MySQL commercial license?

Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB Sweden answered and kindly gave me
permission to forward his reply to our General mailing list for this
question appears to be of broader interest:

Marten G. Mickos wrote:
> Kaarel, Jan
>
> Thanks for your email, Jan!
>
> Our guiding principle is to have all our source code open, and to
> offer it free of payment (i.e. gratis) to those who commit to doing
> the same. We have concluded that the GPL licence best fulfills this
> principle, and that's why we use the GPL.
>
> Therefore the answer to Kaarel's question is:
>
> "Your PHP app that requires MySQL, if distributed, will either have
> to be GPL (or another OSI-approved and MySQL-approved open source
> licence ) or you will need a commercial licence of MySQL."
>
> Sometimes people say "But I cannot open source my application!" and
> they may have valid reasons for this. Our response is then: "If you
> have a valid reason not to be open source, wouldn't that same
> reasoning apply to us?".
>
> This goes to the core of MySQL AB's business idea of Quid pro Quo -
> if you are open source, we are open source - if you are closed
> source, we are commercial.
>
> I hope this was an answer to the question. Please let me know if you
> have any further questions.
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Marten

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