maria-developers team mailing list archive

[Arjen Lentz <arjen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Monty, Henrik

On 08/10/2009, at 8:45 PM, Michael Widenius wrote:
> > > > > > "Henrik" == Henrik Ingo <henrik.ingo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Henrik> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 4:16 PM,  <knielsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>  
> wrote:
> > > #At lp:maria
> > >
> > >  2763 knielsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  2009-10-07 [merge]
> > >      Merge Arjen's fix for new slow log functionality.
> > >      modified:
> > >        sql/mysqld.cc
>
> Henrik> Sorry to be a nitpick, but since this touches source code  
> and not just
> Henrik> build stuff...

Does that even matter, it's part of the same?

I actually got build-related scripts out of Sun/MySQL under GPL that  
were kept internal, because there was the simple case that I wasn't  
otherwise able to rebuild binaries from the provided source. IIRC it  
was some Solaris foo.


> Henrik> Arjen, could you please clarify the terms under which this  
> fix are
> Henrik> contributed to Monty Program (since we've discussed this  
> earlier
> Henrik> today, I'll omit the reasoning why this is necessary).
> Henrik>  -MCA (needs to be signed and faxed/emailed)
> Henrik>  -BSD (needs to be stated in the patch or email, etc...)
> Henrik> or
> Henrik> ...for this particular two liner fix, do you agree (please  
> reply) that
> Henrik> it does not constitute a copyrightable "work" in itself? (I  
> don't know
> Henrik> the English term, but means that trivial things are not  
> "creative
> Henrik> works" and thus not copyrightable.)
>
> Henrik, in general you are right. However, for a few lines bug fix
> "that is obvious", one generally don't need a copyright assignment.

Even if it were not obvious, such small patches are not generally  
considered original work and thus don't acquire their own copyright.
This differs per country, by the way, just to be fun - it's not fixed  
at what point a patch becomes an original work.

Anyway I regarded it as trivial and therefore I just submitted it.
I think you want to be rather "careful" in chasing this kind of thing  
- on the one hand I appreciate that you want to keep the IP clear and  
proper, but on the other hand you don't want to make it tedious for  
potential contributors to the project to actually do that. The more  
legalese and hoops, the fewer we'll see.


> That said, Arjen would you mind either signing the MCA to ensure that
> we can get your fixes in without a hazzle or do you prefer to always
> give your changes to MariaDB under the BSD?


So is there a "finished" MCA ?  Wasn't there still an open thread with  
some things to do?
I'm happy to take a look at it.

I'm ok with pooling copyright, but I'm less ok with any construct that  
enables dual licensing, specifically I don't feel like supporting Sun/ 
MySQL's continued ability to conduct their sales scam. Now, I see my  
contributions to be primarily benefiting MariaDB not MySQL (plus I  
doubt significant things will flow upstream - although pigs might fly)  
so I can probably live with signing an MP MCA.


Cheers,
Arjen.
--
Arjen Lentz, Exec.Director @ Open Query (http://openquery.com)
Exceptional Services for MySQL at a fixed budget.

Follow our blog at http://openquery.com/blog/
OurDelta: enhanced builds for MySQL @ http://ourdelta.org