mysql

[Ryan Damon]

I have a question about mysql's licensing terms.  They provide an
option to license either under their proprietary license, or the GPL.
According to their website (and from what I have heard from others),
mysql says that if you are only going to use their software inhouse
and not distribute it to others, you can license it under the GPL.
However, if you want to distribute it to third parties as part of your
proprietary software, you cannot.  They seem to say that this applies
even if you keep the mysql code separate from your own code and
communicate only through some kind of linking or socket.  It seems to
me that their restrictions on distribution actually go against the
terms of the GPL.  Are other companies doing the same thing, and is
this kind of practice generally considered ok by the open source
community and/or FSF?

--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3