RE: LINUX is the "one" ? .... Comments???

I guess it takes a *nix-gearbrain-genius-type, like Yourself James, to
explain whether MySQL is fully-compliant or not with the GPL.  No big deal
to me, just corn-fusing.

I mean, if the CUSTOMER gets to decide that the code is non-GPL'd, then is
the code GPL-compliant or not...???

I, just so happens, AM familiar with different licence terms, like the
Software Subscription and licensing same product under different terms.
(That's a poor analogy, btw, and perhaps a better one would be the
interactive tax paid for same hardware.)  The question was whether this
MySQL actually IS GPL-compliant, or not, which interested me...  And I'm not
the only one who's noticed You practically need to be a lawyer to try to
imagine there's any sense a-tall amongst ALL the HODGEPODGE of "Open" Source
licenses.  http://www.stromian.com/Public_Licenses.html (Dated, as there are
probably dozens of new variants since '98.)

Btw, James, I was glad to see You add the wink after this statement: "Which
clearly ties directly into innovation for some reason...   ;)"  It CLEARLY
ties directly into innovation INVERSELY, although I don't think that was the
point You were intending to make...;-)  And because "the licensing entity
can do it however they want" including, as a fundamental "right", take any
software (and ANYTHING that can be stored on a hard drive, if RMS had His
way about it) and give it away for free and the original owner/producer of
the software/article/music/whatever has NO economic rights...  Well that
disregards the reality that GOOD, USABLE, DOCUMENTED software projects,
(especially those that take more'n a weekend to complete), cost a LOTTA time
and money to develop..

..'Course, that doesn't ENTIRELY explain the preponderance of lame software
that comes outta MOST (not all) "Open" Source projects:

"I know I'm not alone on this (I just may be the first one saying it out
loud). There are literally tens of thousands of dead projects out there on
Sourceforge. Made by geeks like me who had an itch to scratch and cranked
away for a weekend getting something cool working."
http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/20030210.html#005532

Btw, James, does coding "Open" Source put food on Your table, and/or do You
have a real job...???



| -----Original Message-----
| From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
| [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of James Rich
| Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 7:18 PM
| To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
| Subject: RE: LINUX is the "one" ? .... Comments???
|
|
| On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, jt wrote:
|
| > Is the same identical code for MySQL being distributed as BOTH
| non-GPL and
| > GPL...??  How does THAT work???  Or what?
|
| Yes, the same identical code is licensed under different licenses to
| different users.  And honestly, this isn't so hard to understand.  Almost
| every software company, copyright holder, and patent holder does this all
| the time.  Ever heard of Software Subscription for the iSeries?  If you
| purchase it, you have one license.  If you don't, you get another.  Or how
| about Software Assurance?  Or how about licensing an invention to one
| company differently than to another?
|
| Mysql is no different.  They choose to license mysql to most people under
| the GPL.  If you so desire, you can get a different license by purchasing
| one.  IOW, they may choose to license the code however they want to
| whomever they want.  If the GPL doesn't work for your product Mysql will
| work with to use a license that does.
|
| This works because the GPL follows the same laws that govern all software
| licensing.  The licensing entity (whether an individual or group or
| company) can decide how to license their work and who to license to.  If
| you are not the licensing entity (which you aren't unless you actually
| authored the code) you cannot arbitrarily decide to license the code
| however you want.  This is true of all software.  Thus if you receive
| GPL'ed code you cannot violate it's terms and distribute it under a
| different license.  Likewise if you receive proprietary code.  But the
| licensing entity can do it however they want.
|
| Which clearly ties directly into innovation for some reason...   ;)
|
| James Rich
| _______________________________________________
| This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L)
| mailing list
| To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
| To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
| visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
| or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
| Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
| at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
|