On 2/24/10 5:30 AM, Ed Leafe wrote: > However, if you want to release something that uses these database > programs that is proprietary, or somehow restricts the ability of those who > use it to copy, alter and distribute your code, then the products differ. > PostgreSQL and Firebird don't care. MySQL does. If you're using MySQL and > want to release a product that has restricted rights, you have to buy a > commercial license, and that figuring out how much that costs can be rather > hairy.
You just can't distribute MySQL along with your product. If the customer already has a GPL MySQL server on their network, and your product adds a database to that server, that is fine, too: the GPL'd server won't "infect" the license of your proprietary software. This is kind of in the gray area, though. If your product *requires* MySQL (instead of one of a handful of backends) and if you make money by reselling GPL'd MySQL server boxes, for the intent of setting up that server just for your proprietary app, that would probably be seen as bending the rule to the extreme. You'd have crafted the deployment to separate the pieces enough to technically avoid infecting your proprietary code with the GPL, but the time doing that would probably have been better spent on a commercial MySQL license. Best to avoid gray areas completely, since there are other even better choices than MySQL (PostgreSQL, Firebird, even SQLite for local single-user use). Paul _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
