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Alessandro Ranellucci
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 Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:10 am Post subject: Any license news? |
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Hello all,
I found this old thread: http://lists.mysql.com/perl/2651
and I thought that by DBD::mysql 4.00 the dual-license scheme would have
been replaced by the single GPL to comply with MySQL client libraries.
Why is DBD::mysql still distributed under Perl license, given that is
definitely "derivative work" of a GPL library?
Cheers,
- alessandro ranellucci. |
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Jay Savage
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 8:16 pm Post subject: Re: Any license news? |
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On 1/5/07, Alessandro Ranellucci <aar (AT) cpan (DOT) org> wrote:
| Quote: | Hello all,
I found this old thread: http://lists.mysql.com/perl/2651
and I thought that by DBD::mysql 4.00 the dual-license scheme would have
been replaced by the single GPL to comply with MySQL client libraries.
Why is DBD::mysql still distributed under Perl license, given that is
definitely "derivative work" of a GPL library?
Cheers,
- alessandro ranellucci.
|
That thread is two years old and dates from a time when GPL fanatics
with a poor understanding of both the law and the GPL itself were
going crazy in ways that were later shown to be in error. Although I
don't know what was in there at the time, the current DBD::MySQL code
is certainly not a derrivative work, legally or otherwise, of libmysql
or any other GPL'd work. Simply using an API or connecting to a socket
doesn't make a work derrivative: that's what APIs and sockets are for.
By that logic, your web browser would be a derrivative work of every
website you visit and a SOAP or REST client would be derrivative of
the service it interfaces with. The whole idea was crazy two years
ago, and it reamins crazy today.
You'll notice that, despite the apparent gravity of the discussion,
the thread died almost immediately. Even at the height the GPL
paranoia nobody gave the idea more than a passing thought.
HTH,
-- jay
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Alessandro Ranellucci
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject: Re: Any license news? |
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On 5-01-2007 at 15:16, Jay Savage wrote:
| Quote: | the current DBD::MySQL code is certainly not a derrivative work,
legally or otherwise, of libmysql or any other GPL'd work.
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Just to clarify things, I'm not interested in GPL advocacy nor I want to
discuss here my personal point of view about the definition of
derivative work. I posted my question because in that thread Rudy Lippan
stated that "if the distributor uses 4.x", then DBD::mysql must be
distributed under the GPL. Given also that MySQL AB explicitely switched
from LGPL to GPL (and I assume this has a particular meaning), and that
they grant an explicit permission to PHP, I feel encouraged to think
that it's not just a matter of crazy GPL fanatics.
Cheers,
- alessandro. |
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Alessandro Ranellucci
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:58 pm Post subject: Re: Any license news? |
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On 5-01-2007 at 17:31, Jim Winstead wrote:
Jim, thanks. Although I knew about the FLOSS exception, I didn't "link"
it to the DBD::mysql licensing matter.
- alessandro. |
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