Re: Licensing

Bruno Wolff III wrote:

>On Sat, Mar 05, 2005 at 09:48:24 +0100,
> Miroslav ?ulc <miroslav(dot)sulc(at)startnet(dot)cz> wrote:
>
>
>>If I understood MySQL licensing correctly, simply said, end user has two
>>choices:
>>
>>1) when using application that is licensed under GPL, he/she can use
>>MySQL for free
>>2) when using application under any other license (simplified), he/she
>>must pay for each MySQL installation
>>
>>
>
>No really. The software is GPL and you can use it as you would any GPL
>software. However MySQL threatans to take people to court if they use
>the software commercially. They may or may not win, but this gets companies
>to pay MySQL license fees rather than pay to go to court.
>
>
As I wrote in another e-mail to this thread, I'm no more interested in
MySQL and its licensing so I might eplain it not perfectly.

>In theory if your application isn't tied tightly to MySQL you should be
>able to win a lawsuit. But the first couple of companies that did this
>will probably end up paying more in court costs than license fees.
>
>
I think the "new" MySQL licensing is not very clear and it might be an
opportunity to increase the PostgreSQL user base :-)

>I don't think their licensing stance is ethical. Because they own the
>full copyright and effectively own the developers, they could play other
>games down the road as well.
>
>

Miroslav Šulc