[evs] Current Status

Tony Hoyle tony.hoyle at march-hare.com
Tue Feb 13 20:25:34 GMT 2007


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Flávio Etrusco wrote:
> Indeed, it seems they've cleared that
> gpl-but-only-if-you-are-free-as-in-beer wording in their new licenses
> and are now fully gpl:
> http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/
> http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/opensource-license.html

Desn't look like any change there - GPL + slightly dubious 'exception' 
as always.

IMO the 'exception' is contradictory - they're saying if you license the 
application under an OSI license then you can use it, but it's smoke and 
mirrors.  If you were able to do that then this would work:

mysql  -> BSD licensed wrapper -> Commercial application

However you can't (obviously) - it has effectively GPL'd the entire 
application, forcing GPL conditions on anything that uses your own 
application even if you didn't want to.

Mysql have history - they *have* sued companies.  I'm not going to 
expose march hare to that kind of risk.

> But there's a warning on the site that some versions are still under
> the old license:
> http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/mypl.html

The old license was LGPL, which is a much more free license, which is 
why we're able to use it.

Tony


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