Frank Heckenbach wrote:
Eike Lange wrote:
Hi Adrian and List!
On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 05:37:01PM +0200, Adriaan van Os wrote:
From http://www.gnu-pascal.de/contrib/eike/ I downloaded GPC interfaces to mySQL, contributed by Eike Lange - thanks Eike for contributing them. With some necessary changes, I got things working on Mac OS X.
Would you like to contribute these changes?
Now, we have an "original work" copyrighted by MySQL AB and licensed under the GPL, plus a "new work" based on the "original work" copyrighted partly by Eike Lange and licensed under the LGPL. From a lawyers point of view - I don't think that this is all correct.
At least in my MySQL version (3.23.x), which I think also Eike's work was based upon, mysql.h is under the LGPL, not GPL.
This is very remarkable, to say the least. Here is a copy of the header of mysql.h (version 4)
/* Copyright (C) 2000-2003 MySQL AB
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA */
This is confirmed by the MySQL website, see http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/opensource-license.html.
You mention version 3.23.x. According to the MySQL website "versions of the MySQL database server prior to 3.23.19 were licensed under the MySQL FREE PUBLIC LICENSE (Version 4, March 5, 1995)", see http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/mypl.html. It further states "The license was changed to the GNU GPL as of version 3.23.19, and commercial licenses are also available."
Since the original work (mysql.h) is under LGPL, the derived work (mysql.pas) must be under the LGPL as well or under the GPL without exceptions (which the LGPL explictly permits).
MySQL being licensed under LGPL can not possibly be correct. Someone must have changed the header.
Also, I asked MySQL AB. They are perfectly happy if a Pascal MySQL unit would state that "the rights of MySQL AB have to be respected as outlined on http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/faq.html".
Regards,
Adriaan van Os