felix@xxxxxxxxxxx writes: > On Sat, Oct 08, 2005 at 10:31:30AM -0500, Scott Marlowe wrote: > >> What it comes down to is this. MySQL is dual licensed. You can use >> the GPL version, or the commercial version. In order to sell the >> commercially licensed version, MySQL must have the rights to all the >> code in their base. So, in order for MySQL to sell a commercail >> version of MySQL with innodb support, they have to pay innobase a >> bit to include it, or rip it out. > > I don't understand. If both MySQL and Innodb are GPL licensed, > commercial or not should make no difference, and they can add all the > GPL changes they want o the last Innodb GPL release. > > What am I missing? If they do not hold a fairly unrestricted license to *resell* InnoDB, then MySQL AB would be unable to sell "traditional proprietary commercial licenses" to the combination of MySQL and InnoDB, which is the way that they actually _make money_. Based on the comments in Oracle's press release, it appears that MySQL AB *does* have some form of contract with InnoDB Oy Inc to resell InnoDB, but that contract expires some time next year. If the contract is not renewed, then MySQL AB would only be permitted to link MySQL (tm) to InnoDB under the conditions of the GPL, which would mean that MySQL AB could only distribute a MySQL(tm)/InnoDB(tm) combination under the conditions of the GPL. This would essentially *destroy* their revenue model, which is predicated on the notion of selling people a "traditional proprietary license" to MySQL+InnoDB on the basis that they should be fearful of GPL-licensed software as it always forces you to release your code "for free." (There's some truth to this, but possibly not as much as MySQL AB would have you believe.) -- let name="cbbrowne" and tld="cbbrowne.com" in String.concat "@" [name;tld];; http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/oses.html Black holes are where God divided by zero. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings
