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Judicial Order in MySQL AB vs. Nusphere Suit

Posted by michael on from the lay-down-the-law dept.

bkuhn writes: "Judge Saris has ruled on the preliminary injunction motion. The Court recognizes in today's order that MySQL AB "seems to have the better argument" on the GNU GPL matter. The Court fully recognized the need for expert testimony at trial about the GNU GPL and the technical facts at hand, particularly as to why static linking of software components into a single, unified, compiled binary forms a derivative work of the original components."

4 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"seems to have the better argument" by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Informative

    The "better argument" claim was made in regards to the GPL enforcement issue, not the trademark issue. The judge was indicating that MySQL's claim that NuSphere violated the GPL is more believable than NuSphere's claim that they didn't.

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    How we know is more important than what we know.
  2. More About the Suit by Eppie · · Score: 3, Informative

    The press release does not have much info on what the suit is actually about. Here are some links to explain the dispute:

    I couldn't find any propaganda on the Nusphere site. I guess they're downplaying the story.

  3. Re:Linking by lkaos · · Score: 5, Informative

    The wording is definitely ambiguous. In fact, the GPL FAQ even has this question that addresses what constitutes aggregation between a GPL'd program and a non-GPL'd program.

    Essentially, noone is really sure how far the GPL extends. I think linking is pretty straight forward but there are other things that are a little sketchy. I think we are due for a GPL v3.0.

    If users lose rights from the GPL being thrown out, then that could potentially be very bad. I know in a lot of corporate environments, if the GPL was thrown away and an author couldn't be contacted, a lot of work could potentially become invalid due to licensing problems.

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    int func(int a);
    func((b += 3, b));
  4. public domain == communism !? by MenTaLguY · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm not quite sure what PD has to do with communism, unless you want to equate IP with physical property (which is honestly a kind of dicey proposition, IMO).

    Releasing under something like the X/MIT license is probably better than PD, anyway, as PD leaves you legally liable for all sorts of fun things. You'll notice that the bulk of the X/MIT license is a disclaimer of liability.

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    DNA just wants to be free...