Re: [Maria-developers] License issues

On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 12:30 PM, Sergei Golubchik wrote:

...

I think we're not the only GPLv2 project out there. And as unfortunate as it is, we cannot change it. Some distributions decided to maintain readline v5 package, in parallel to the latest readline. This seems to be the most reasonable approach - mysql and mariadb can use system readline, and even GPLv2 software that don't bundle readline can be used too.

Unrelated to MariaDB or MySQL, but as a general point: the readline v5 that is GPLv2 licensed can also be linked with software that is under the GPLv3, if it is licensed with the "any later version" wording. (I didn't actually confirm that it is.) Hence, a distribution like Mageia could ship readline v5 and satisfy both GPLv2 apps and GPLv3 apps. Otoh by shipping newer GPLv3 version of readline you leave GPLv2 projects out of luck.

yes, i figured that, but readline v5 would mean likely no maintained version from upstream, likely...

(I'm pretty sure readline developers didn't quite realize what they were doing here. Their original goal with their choice of license was to create an advantage for GPL licensed apps, now they are doing exactly the opposite.)

henrik

since readline is on gnu, i'm pretty sure they know _exactly_ what they are doing... RMS just wants to force GPLv3 down everyones throat :-(