Re: License issues, MySQL

From: Mike Breuer (mbreuer@new.rr.com)
Date: 08/29/01


Sorry if this gets in after the fact.  I'm replying offline...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Artovil" <artovil@ARCANEREALMS.ORG>


> So, I am safe if I just distribute a patch file that only includes
modified
> CircleMUD code that calls the functions found in the MySQL C API?  Id est,
> as long as I don't include any of the files from the MySQL API, right?
So,
> I could just write a detailed description of how to add the proper inlcude
> path to the Makefile as well as other options that might be necessary,
right?

All standard disclaimers notwithstanding (I am not a lawyer, etc), most of
the time simple common sense applies.  If you feel like you are stealing
someone's copyrighted code, you probably are.  If you refer to a few lines
out of a large function, or just the names of API's, you probably aren't.
It's not really possible to enforce a license that covers _every_ line of
code, or none of us could use:

int i;

If you paste in a few lines from a big function, no problem.  If you start
swiping whole functions, you might want to reconsider.  That is a subjective
matter, too.  What if the function you steal is:

int square(int x, int y) { return x * y; }

It's pretty hard to claim intellectual property on that.  For what you're
talking about...writing a patch that refers to two different codebases that
are licensed differently, I doubt you'll run into any issues.

Mike

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