[Mono-devel-list] ByteFX development

[Michael J. Ryan]

Okay, but if my code only accesses ByteFx's dll, and doesn't embed
any code from it, I am safe (commercially) from it, correct?



Jonathan Pryor wrote:
> Warning: I am not a lawyer (but I've read the FAQ!). :-)
> 
> On Fri, 2004-09-17 at 19:19, Michael J. Ryan wrote:
> 
>>Is the bytefx driver using the mysql connector library, also, is using
>>an assembly in .net considered a static linking under GPL?
> 
> 
> The GPL doesn't differentiate between static or dynamic linking.  It
> only cares about linking -- does the GPL'd code exist within your
> process?  If so, then your code *must* be GPL.  Period.
> 
> See: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins
> 
> Just to make things "interesting", using some form of IPC (CORBA,
> sockets, etc.) between separate processes doesn't necessarily avoid a
> GPL violation: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#MereAggregation
> 
>         if the semantics of the communication are intimate enough,
>         exchanging complex internal data structures, that too could be a
>         basis to consider the two parts as combined into a larger
>         program.
> 
> Which begs the question: could communicating with a GPL program over a
> publicly documented protocol be interpreted as "combining two modules
> into one program"?  I imagine that it depends on the protocol -- if it's
> a standardized protocol such as ODBC, probably not.  If only one program
> uses it --  the GPL program -- then maybe.
> 
> You'd certainly have to ask a lawyer about it.
> 
> I also have no idea what protocols MySQL supports for IPC.
> 
> I can say this: if the MySQL protocol is *only* used by MySQL, and the
> protocol requires "intimate" semantics, a non-GPL client library may not
> be possible.  (Of course, a definition of "intimate semantics" would
> require the involvement of a lawyer.  And possibly a court of law.)
> 
> However, I imagine that MySQL supports ODBC, so if you used ODBC to
> communicate with MySQL the ODBC client library could be LGPL or MIT/X11.
> 
>  - Jon
> 
> 

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Michael J. Ryan - tracker1(at)theroughnecks(dot)com - www.theroughnecks.net
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