← Back to team overview

maria-discuss team mailing list archive

Re: MariaDB and the SCA

 


On Sep 4, 2009, at 2:20 AM, Arjen Lentz wrote:

Hi Mark

On 04/09/2009, at 9:25 AM, MARK CALLAGHAN wrote:
Back in the day there was an assertion in the MySQL internals PDF with
respect to the license of any client library created after reading
that doc. The PDF has been replaced by HTML and I don't see that claim
anymore. Does anyone remember this? It is here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20051224102135/dev.mysql.com/doc/internals/en/licensing-notice.html


Because this is a GPL protocol, any product which uses it to connect
to a MySQL server, or to emulate a MySQL server, or to interpose
between any client and server which uses the protocol, or for any
similar purpose, is also bound by the GPL. Therefore if you use this
description to write a program, you must release your program as GPL.
Contact MySQL AB if you need clarification of these terms or if you
need to ask about alternative arrangements.



Ye I remember it. I think I helped make it disappear, when I spotted it. Earlier instances were in the main docs and the website and had been cleaned up long before; the Internals stuff was published later.

David and Monty tell me that FSF actually agrees with the above to a degree, but I don't think it's a viable position. Declaring that a protocol is GPL is not something you want to base a business on. The counter argument is simple: if a protocol equates to linking, that means that Internet Explorer is linked to Apache.
The defence rests ;-)

A very good point. It shows that the position is untenable.

--
Paul McCullagh
PrimeBase Technologies
www.primebase.org
www.blobstreaming.org
pbxt.blogspot.com






References