MySQL client libraries licensing (was Fedora Core 2 wishlists)

[Adam Debus]

>
> I think that the real "problem" fall over the person that develops php
> based software and is using MySQL, remember that the GPL does not
> restrict you to distribute GPL licensed code with software that uses
> other licenses, If you develop an application with php and mysql4 your
> code must be GPL (unless you obtain a different license from the MySQL
> developers)
>

    As it has been explined to me by a lawyer: That's only true if you are
embedding the mysql library in your software (statically linking). Merely
using MySQL as a database for PHP does not tie you to either license because
you are not embedding code from either program.

    The same goes for Perl or C/C++. Writing code that utilizes the language
does not automatically tie you to the license the programming language uses,
unless you statically link against the libraries.

    Otherwise, pretty much nothing in Linux would be other then GPL, since
that's what glibc is licensed under, including PHP, Perl and Apache, all of
which have licenses other then GPL.

Thanks,

Adam Debus
Network Engineer, ReachONE Internet
adam at reachone.com