[Mono-devel-list] ByteFX development

[Michael L Torrie]

On Mon, 2004-09-20 at 15:29 -0700, Michael J. Ryan wrote:
> 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?

If the DLL is LGPL, then yes you can link a non-GPL, non-LGPL program
against it.

If the DLL is GPL, then you can't link a non-GPL program against a GPL'd
dll.

> 
> 
> 
> 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
> > 
> > 

--