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I never meant to flame but if you ask for it...
Trolltech could have used the LGPL long ago, they decided to go GPL(dual licensed) so they could get propietary devs to pay thousands per coder making closed source apps using the QT libraries (Or even devs that wish to build BSD QT apps), as for MySQL, as far as I know they don't make development libraries.
mysql is embeddable - in which case you're bound by the linking restrictions.
there are also client libraries (for those apps interfacing with mysql) whose license status I don't know about - if they're GPL, your mysql-using application better be under a GPL compatible license
Err, why would they need to "license" code that they own to them selves?
1. To make it clear how the software is distributed.
2. To allow others who contribute to see how the contributions they make will be handled.
3. Along with #2...Sun is the primary contributor to OpenOffice.org (thanks you wonderful people at Sun!), though Sun is not the only group contributing.







Member since:
> This allows sun to take Open Office code and
> add closed extensios to it
Wrong! Please, stop spreading rumours about Sun's OOo licensing.
Rumours say the following:
1. Sun needs the SISSL in order to create the proprietary StarOffice product.
2. Sun exploits other people's work by creating proprietary products from it.
3. Sun puts pressure on developers to assign their copyright to Sun in order to be able to create a proprietary product from it.
4. The SISSL is not a Free Software license.
The truth is:
1. Sun does not need the SISSL for StarOffice. Sun licenses OpenOffice.org to itself under the GNU LGPL, as published and promoted by the Free Software Foundation. Anyone else can do the same.
2. Sun pays the bill almost alone and has the right to do that. By the way, anyone else can do the same - because of the LGPL!
3. No. Sun does the same as Trolltech and MySQL: They say "Nice patch, but if you don't assign the copyright to me, it's useless for me". That's all. Either flame Sun and Trolltech and MySQL or don't flame at all.
4. It is. Or, better said, it was until it was dropped.