> I have some questions about the CircleMUD license. First of all, I am in > the planning and testing stages of implementing a MySQL database instead of > the regular ASCII/binary system. MySQL is licensed under the GNU GPL. The GNU GPL does not govern operation of software, but it requires that anything linked with GPL code also be under the GNU GPL, for the purposes of copying/distributing it.. I'm not sure about the MySQL API, but it's probably under the GPL or the LGPL... in any event, the code you wrote to -use- the API is not the same as the API that you are using. Basically, you should be perfectly fine provided you do not create a binary distribution that is dynamically (or statically) linked against software licensed under the GPL -- the GPL requires that anything linked against GPL code be OpenSource and licensed under the GPL, yeah it is nasty for many purposes -- The GPL, however, is useful in preventing huge corporations from snatching up cool snippets and incorporating them into their own products without having to license them from the authors and compensate them, [That's the reason to go for GPL instead of BSD-style sometimes, really] or if you want to prevent someone from releasing a binary-only package with an enhanced version of your neat function without allowing you to see what they've done to it. The Diku/Circle licenses don't offer that protection, so in that respect they are both inferior, as far as open source software is concerned, they aren't even considered 'free software' licenses, nor open source licenses, so integrating GPL code in circle code and distributing the package under the circle license would in all likelihood be a violation of the GPL and therefore copyright infringment. On the other hand, it is possible to distribute patch files in such a manner that they only include alterations necessary (IOW, the GPL pieces become separate packages that the user manually plug in) -Mysid -- +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | FAQ: http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~fletchra/Circle/list-faq.html | | Archives: http://post.queensu.ca/listserv/wwwarch/circle.html | +---------------------------------------------------------------+
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