Re: GNAT GPL 2005 Edition is now available

["Björn Persson" <spam-away@nowhere.nil>]

Florian Weimer wrote:
> Whether compiling the application on-site is fine, I don't know.

I asked this question to David Axmark of MySQL AB some time ago. They've 
changed the license of the MySQL client library from LGPL to GPL, but 
you can get another license if you pay for it. I asked as follows: If a 
program that uses the MySQL library is distributed as source code � but 
with a non-free license � and compiled on the customer's computer, does 
that require buying a license?

He said that if I were to ask Richard Stallman or Eben Moglen this, I 
would get a long exposition but no clear answer, and that's basically 
what I got from David too. He said that he considered it a matter of 
intent, and talked a little about how lawyers can pick a text apart 
until you don't recognize it. As I understood it he thought it was 
acceptable if you'd distribute as source code for technical reasons but 
not if you'd do it to circumvent the need to buy a license, but it seems 
rather unclear what the GPL actually says about this.

-- 
Bj�rn Persson                              PGP key A88682FD
                    omb jor ers @sv ge.
                    r o.b n.p son eri nu