Not linking but rather using - auto download OK?

[Hendrik Weimer]

John Hancock <jhnhncck19 at googlemail.com> writes:

> Instead of bundling that GPL software with my application, my
> application's installer will  automatically download that GPL software
> from the internet and install it for the end-user.

It doesn't matter whether you supply an auto-downloader or distribute
the GPL software with your application as "mere aggregation" is
allowed. The real question is whether your application is a derivative
work of MySQL. If your client-side implementation links against the
official libraries, you can definitely answer the question with yes;
if not than it is less clear. If you rely on some special MySQL
features, I would also assume the answer is yes, but that will be
tough to decide without a court case,

A related question is whether you really need MySQL; there are many
other relational database systems that are available under
non-copyleft licenses. And of course Sun offers proprietary licenses
for folks like you, so you might want to ask them about their
licensing model for embedded solutions.

HTH,
Hendrik