[OT] Re: A question of legality...
[OT] Re: A question of legality...
- Subject: [OT] Re: A question of legality...
- From: Alastair Houghton <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:10:39 +0000
On 23 Nov 2009, at 10:58, Michael Davey wrote:
> I want to share with you all the 4 arch version of the mysql libs that I went to some trouble to make today, but in light of the information given to me today by Andrew Farmer, I do not know if this is legal.
>
> Anyone know?
This isn't really a Cocoa question, right? So why cocoa-dev? There are other, better places for this discussion.
That said, my understanding (though I am not a lawyer) is that the MySQL libraries are under GPL and that there is an exception for FLOSS software. They are *not* subject to the LGPL, and so you can't link to them from a commercial or shareware program without being in breach of the GPL (doing so makes your program a "Derivative Work" and therefore you would have to release the source code).
If you distribute binary copies, you must comply with the GPL requirement to make the sources that you used available. If you haven't changed anything, you could just give the URL for the official sources; if you have changed something, you could do that and provide a patch.
I'll also add that it's illegal in some jurisdictions to give legal advice unless one is a qualified lawyer, so you're unlikely to get good answers to legal questions on a mailing list. You should consult a lawyer if you're at all unclear.
Kind regards,
Alastair.
--
http://alastairs-place.net
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