On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 4:34 PM, David Wall <d.wall@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > My understanding is that's not quite true. The client libraries are GPL, so > you can't use them directly, but I don't see what would stop you using their > ODBC/JDBC drivers with your non-GPL application (especially if you support > other ODBC databases as well). The server can't be bundled in your > application, but you can still get the user to install it and use it with > your application. > According to the MySQL license info ( > http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/commercial-license.html ): > > > When your application is not licensed under either the GPL-compatible Free > Software License as defined by the Free Software Foundation or approved by > OSI, and you intend to or you may distribute MySQL software, you must first > obtain a commercial license to the MySQL product. > > Typical examples of MySQL distribution include: > > > > Selling software that includes MySQL to customers who install the software > on their own machines. > > > Selling software that requires customers to install MySQL themselves on > their own machines. > > > Building a hardware system that includes MySQL and selling that hardware > system to customers for installation at their own locations. > > It sure sounds like if your application uses MySQL and you sell your > software (I presume this would include online services that charge for use > of the site and that site runs MySQL under the hood), you have to buy a > commercial license, and you can't get around it just by not directly > distributing MySQL and having your customer install it separately. I imagine you can get round the second one by building your software so it supports PostgreSQL as well - that way you don't 'require customes to install MySQL'. As for the hardware one, well, that just confirms everything I previously thought about MySQL that is unrepeatable where minors may be reading. -- Dave Page EnterpriseDB UK Ltd: http://www.enterprisedb.com PostgreSQL UK 2008 Conference: http://www.postgresql.org.uk -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
