Re: License issues, MySQL

From: George Greer (greerga@circlemud.org)
Date: 08/29/01


On Wed, 29 Aug 2001, Artovil wrote:

>For instance, would this code be considered written by me, and without any
>trace of GPL code?  All it has is the API function calls.

License law has the idea of an "interface."  You're not considered
including that code in your program so long as you stick to the public
function calls.

What exactly is an "interface" gets rather sticky though.  For example,
using a system-call doesn't subject you to the license of the kernel.
However, using the interface to a GPL library does subject the user to the
GPL.

--- 8< ---
  If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful
  to permit linking proprietary applications with the library.  If this is
  what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead
  of this License.
--- 8< ---

Static linking would make the problem obvious, but dynamic linking doesn't.
Then you get into the compiler, inlining functions, and include files.
Yuck.

--
George Greer
greerga@circlemud.org

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