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

[Tom Lane]

"Paul W. Frields" <stickster at gmail.com> writes:
> I'd recommend stripping them out of the tarball using the methods
> shown in the packaging guidelines, and then including your own
> %{_docdir}/%{name}-%{version}/README-docs.Fedora indicating the
> licensing of the docs is nonfree, and including a web address for the
> official docs.

Thanks, will do it that way.  (BTW, I assume all this holds true for
the RHEL distribution as well.)

> Couldn't Sun just as well protect the sanctity of their official
> documentation by tying their requirements to the use of the MySQL
> trademarks, so that if someone wanted/needed to alter the docs for
> some reason, they were required to relinquish use of those trademarks?
> I think that would allow them to be more fully freed and then we could
> include them in the Fedora repository.

The weird license on the docs is not really Sun's doing.  It dates
back to when MySQL AB was still trying to figure out how to make money
off an open-source database; one of their answers was to charge for
copies of the documentation.  Now that Oracle owns it all, any change
would require Oracle adopting an enlightened attitude towards open
source, which I'm not planning to hold my breath for.

			regards, tom lane