Posted by J.O. Aho on 02/13/06 01:12

J wrote:
> GPL says I can't sell a finished product.. what about being paid for the
> labor of implementing it for a business?

You can still charge for support, which IMHO this would go under, just see to
that the modifications done for the implementation are published in a way to
apply with the GPL.


> Anyone know the ethics of this stuff? a few months ago, the mysql list
> discussions on the topic essentially showcased the representatives /
> moderators saying "We're not sure".

PHP 4 and later aren't released under GPL, which makes it possible to make
commercial programs in the old fashion. If you want to work against MySQL but
don't want your work be tainted by GPL, then you need to get a MySQL
commercial license, which is more or less LGPL.
http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/commercial-license.html

But if you do borrow code from a GPL license project, then you are back on
square one, you can still charge for support, but not for the code and the
code has to be released under GPL.


//Aho

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