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 The PDF has been replaced by HTML and I don't see that claim anymore.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/lic...
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 ;-) 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