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

Tom Lane tgl at redhat.com
Sat Feb 20 01:56:55 UTC 2010


I wrote:
>> 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.

to which Richard Fontana replied:
> These terms seem not to satisfy current Fedora licensing guidelines,
> if I'm not mistaken. Spot?

Ping?  I'm not sure if the above constitutes a final decision or not.
If it does, must I edit the tarball to remove the offending file, or is
it sufficient to not install it?

			regards, tom lane



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