[std.database]

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:00:13 -0400, Steve Teale  
<steve.teale at britseyeview.com> wrote:

>> A direct translation is a derivative work.  So yes, it must be GPL.
>>
>> However, there must be ways around this.  I believe headers have certain
>> rules in most licenses.
>>
> Steve, do you think this provides any relief>
>
> http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/foss-exception/

I know our messages crossed paths probably, but for completeness, no, I  
don't think this allows relief.  Boost is not listed as an allowed  
exception.

But this doesn't matter anyways.  The *end product*, not phobos, must be  
licensed free and open source under the boost license.  This is an  
important distinction.

This means, effectively, even if boost was included on the list, and we  
put mysql client bindings in phobos, in order to ship with mysql client  
library the user of phobos would have to license *their* product under  
boost!  Even if they didn't ship the source for their application, anyone  
who obtained the application source through any means would be free to  
copy it at will.  This limitation is too severe for inclusion in the core  
library of a language such as D, which might be used in closed-source  
settings.

Note that php and python are somewhat open-source anyways since they are  
interpreted, and commonly you do not need to distribute the source of your  
server-side code for it to be used.

-Steve