At 03:09 AM 6/8/2006, Rob Desbois wrote:
Douglas,
If you are selling a product which requires your users download MySQL or
requires you distribute it with the product, you need a commercial licence.
$595?! Ouch indeed...it's much cheaper if you're not using InnoDB,
although obviously that's a pretty major trade-off.
Rob,
The $595 license applies to any MySQL database, whether it uses
InnoDb or not. So if you are just using MyISAM tables, and you distribute
applications without source code (outside of the GPL), then it is $595 per
year. From my understanding, this "per year" license also applies to
customers receiving your application. So if you sell 5,000 applications per
year, over 5 years that would be 25,000 applications. If after that you
stop selling the software or you go out of business, your customers will
still have to shell out $14.8 million per year in licensing if they still
use the software, whether they need support or not from MySQL AB. Ouch!
Mike
>
<
---------- Original Message ----------
FROM: Douglas Sims <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
TO: mos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
DATE: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 23:15:07 -0500
SUBJECT: Re: MySQL (GPL License)
Ouch.
Thanks for the clarification. Two additional thoughts:
1) Does this apply (I think not) even if you don't compile with or
link with the MySQL database? If you just connect to it with ports
or sockets, as we usually do with web applications, you still don't
need a commercial license?
2) $595/year is still a lot cheaper than most of the alternatives
such as MS-SQL or Oracle.
I got into this debate with our Microsoft rep over lunch about a year
ago. My company does consulting with a couple of large (US
Fortune-500 companies) and unfortunately one of these is wedded to
MS. I work with MS-SQL quite a lot and generally find it inferior to
MySQL and as Randy (the MS rep) was talking how you really did need
to buy commercial licenses for MySQL, I pointed out that no you
really didn't for web applications. (He went on to point out what
great support MS SQL had - I quickly agreed and said that MS SQL had
the best support we could ever ask for... it's called "Google."
Randy still paid for the lunch :-)
Douglas Sims
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Jun 7, 2006, at 10:20 PM, mos wrote:
> At 08:15 PM 6/7/2006, you wrote:
>> I believe that if you are only using MySQL for your company's
>> internal needs, whether from a web server or for deployment to other
>> company-owned locations, you don't need a commercial license. For
>> example, if your company owns fifiteen stores, you could set up a
>> MySQL-based point-of-sale system at each one without needing a
>> commercial license. You only need to release your source code if you
>> release your compiled code.
>>
>> Also, I believe the GPL requirement for sharing only applies if you
>> have modified MySQL's object code, i.e. compiled your code into it or
>> it into your code or linked object code to it. If you are simply
>> installing it as a database and communicating to it through DBI or
>> ODBC or some other means which uses sockets or ports, you don't need
>> to release your code under the GPL.
>>
>> Thus, you hardly ever need to purchase a commercial license.
>>
>> Please note that this is just my understanding. I hope someone will
>> correct if I have misstated anything here.
>
> Unfortunately that's not what MySQL AB licensing person told me.
> The license is more strict than that. If your company distributes
> an application that uses MySQL database inside the company (even
> inside the same building), and you don't give the other dept the
> source code (so it falls outside the gpl license) then the dept
> receiving the application needs to have a MySQL license. In other
> words, the complete application source code must follow the
> application.
>
> If you have a commercial application running in Windows, and expect
> to sell a lot of applications, it will cost you $595 per database
> server *per year*.
> See https://shop.mysql.com/network.html?rz=s2. I didn't realize
> myself it is now a per server/per year pricing either and it came
> as quite a shock to me system. This can add up if you have a
> thousand applications in circulation because each customer needs to
> pay $595/year. If this is too pricey for you, there are open source
> databases out there that are free to use and free to distribute.
> FireBird and ProgreSQL come to mind. And there are other commercial
> databases where you pay up front and have no distribution fees
> whatsoever.
>
> Mike
>
>
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