Emiliano Heyns wrote:
[]
Yes, agreed. That does mean that application builders must take extra care
when including other non-GPL libraries. I've been in discussions where
applications that use JDBC, .Net providers and ODBC fall; the "contact
surface" of the application is not directly with the libraries that the GPL
app delivers to facilitate these conduits, but they do live in the same
address space as the calling app. I am not sure whether that constitutes
derivative use; most of the discussions I was in petered out before a
conclusion was reached; my reading of the GPL says (but I am not a
lawyer by
any stretch of the imagination) that the letter would allow non-GPL use,
while the intent is perfectly clear that it would be regarded as derivative
use. Maybe the GPLv3 addresses this, I'm not up to speed with it.
You'll be pleased to know we're also adding the following exemption for
exactly this case:
> Client Protocol Driver exemptions
>
In addition, as a special exemption, OpenLink Software gives permission
to use the unmodified client libraries (ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET and OleDB providers)
> in your own application whether open-source or not, with no obligation
to use
> the GPL on the resulting application.
In all other respects you must abide by the terms of the GPL.
This will be in the next release and website update.
Regards,
~Tim
--
Tim Haynes
OpenLink Software
<http://www.openlinksw.com/>
