There's been a lot of bitching in the community about MySQL's licensing terms and changes from one version to the next. If you have an opinion in the matter, please take 30 seconds to fill out their Licensing Survey.
The survey is very short but very important.
It is strange, however, that they never provide a link from the survey page to their Licensing Policy (they have both a Commercial License and an Open Source License) or their Licensing Prices. That is, after all, what the survey is about. Read those first if you've not seen them before. It'll take longer than 30 seconds, but what's the point of participating if you don't know the terms you're commenting on?
Posted by jzawodn at February 19, 2004 08:42 PM
what's the point of participating if you don't know the terms you're commenting on?
Wait — you mean people are actually supposed to know what they're saying on the intarweb? ... Oh my.
SCNR.. :)
Their licensing policy is so hard to decipher. If I create a commercial software with Perl/Python/PHP, do I have to use the commercial license? Normally (the way GPL is normally interpreted) I wouldn't, but has this changed?
Make sure you mention that in the survey. They need to know that users are confused.
[quote]Perl/Python/PHP, do I have to use the commercial license? Normally (the way GPL is normally interpreted) I wouldn't, but has this changed?[:quote]
I asked this question and they said yes. I commented that this is not the way everyone else interprets the GPL and they suggested i speak to a lawyer!
I asked MySQL about their license once. Even they don't have it straight. The rep did quite a tap dance. Smells like a rat to me.
They must know that this situation is very confusing. I hope they will make this clear soon.
MySQL says that their database is under GPL if one chooses so and that's enough for me to know.
MySQL: Drop GPL altogether if you don't want people to use it.
