[Fedora-legal-list] Proper description of mysql's documentation license?

Tom Lane tgl at redhat.com
Sat Jan 30 16:47:42 UTC 2010


Bug #560181 correctly points out that although mysql's code is
distributed under GPL, the associated documentation is not.
The reporter proposes classifying it as "Redistributable, no
modification permitted", but I thought I'd ask this list about
opinions on the best license tag for it.  The doc license looks
like this:


Copyright 1997-2008 MySQL AB, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.

This documentation is NOT distributed under a GPL license. Use of this
documentation is subject to the following terms: You may create a
printed copy of this documentation solely for your own personal use.
Conversion to other formats is allowed as long as the actual content is
not altered or edited in any way. You shall not publish or distribute
this documentation in any form or on any media, except if you
distribute the documentation in a manner similar to how Sun
disseminates it (that is, electronically for download on a Web site
with the software) or on a CD-ROM or similar medium, provided however
that the documentation is disseminated together with the software on
the same medium. Any other use, such as any dissemination of printed
copies or use of this documentation, in whole or in part, in another
publication, requires the prior written consent from an authorized
representative of Sun Microsystems, Inc.  Sun Microsystems, Inc. and
MySQL AB reserve any and all rights to this documentation not expressly
granted above.


Also: I am thinking of putting the docs into a separate -docs subpackage
with its own License tag, rather than confusing matters by labeling the
whole package with two very different tags.  Any objections to that?
Could the "with the software" bit above be read to prohibit such a
scheme?  Plan C would be to drop the docs entirely and just offer a link
to mysql's website, but I don't like that very much ...

			regards, tom lane



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