Re: About GPL and proprietary software

Oops! scott(dot)marlowe(at)ihs(dot)com ("scott.marlowe") was seen spray-painting on a wall:
> On Tue, 23 Sep 2003, Marten G Mickos wrote:
>> Scott et co.,
>>
>> Thanks for your comment. Here is my response.
>>
>> First of all, let's remember that neither I nor MySQL AB (nor any of
>> us) is an official authority for interpreting the GPL. Legally,
>> affirmative answers can only be given by a competent court. The FSF
>> is a natural authority on the GPL and whenever we are in doubt, we
>> turn to them for advice. But not being the authority on the topic
>> does not reduce our eagerness to discuss this topic!
>>
>> Robert Treat already pointed out two main points:
>> - the GPL kicks in when you DISTRIBUTE
>> - the only ones truly suffering from MySQL's licensing policy are the
>> ones who try to exploit open source for their own benefit without
>> giving anything back to the community
>
> This is generally true, but it also created an issue where PHP, an open
> source project, can no longer distribute PHP with mysql connect libraries
> freely due to what I like to think of as an "impedence mismatch" of their
> licenses. I.e. more free licenses like BSD or PHP are not always
> compatible.

It would be most interesting if the makers of other GPLed software
such as Linux were to apply the same rule themselves.

That way, for MySQL to be distributed with Linux, MySQL AB might be
required to pay $450/box to Linus for licenses. Wouldn't _that_ be
ironic?
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