[thelist] MySQL licensing

raditha dissanayake jabber at raditha.com
Sat Aug 14 19:39:09 CDT 2004


Kasimir K wrote:

> raditha dissanayake wrote on 14/08/2004 18:24:
>
>> have not followed the discussions on the mysql mailing lists - their 
>> position (unless it has changed of late) is that if you make a 
>> commercial product that stores data in a mysql db you have to pay 
>> them licensing fees - this is what a mysql sales rep told me.
>
>
> At http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/opensource-license.html it 
> says:
> "Free use for those who never copy, modify or distribute. As long as 
> you never distribute (internally or externally) the MySQL Software in 
> any way, you are free to use it for powering your application, 
> irrespective of whether your application is under GPL license or not."
>
> A web site is a commercial product, but installing MySQL on your web 
> server is not distributing it. Or is it?
>
> .k

All this discussion is about the GPL which I think everyone on the list 
understands reasonably well. Unfortunately mysql's opinion is
"If you distribute a proprietary application in any way, and you are not 
licensing and distributing your source code under GPL, you need to 
purchase a commercial license of MySQL" - which despite their claims is 
certainly not what mysql says.

Assume for a moment that this interpretations is correct - then a mail 
client that connects to a GPL mail server would have to be GPLed as well.

-- 
Raditha Dissanayake.
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