[http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=1426]
Is the headline overblown?
=====
October 22nd, 2009
Stallman admits GPL flawed, proprietary licensing needed to pay for
MySQL development
Posted by Ed Burnette @ 12:14 am
[...]
Under the GPL, the copyright holder (usually the author) has special
privileges that no one else has: they can use the code in a
proprietary product. In an open letter to the European Commission,
Stallman admits that revenue from this proprietary licensing is
necessary to fund development for the free version (emphasis added):
MySQL uses the parallel licensing approach to generate revenue to
continue the FLOSS development of the software. If Oracle acquired
MySQL, it would then be the only entity able to release the code other
than under the GPL…. As only the original rights holder can sell
commercial licenses, no new forked version of the code will have the
ability to practice the parallel licensing approach, and will *not
easily generate the resources to support continued development of the
MySQL platform*.
The letter was signed by Richard Stallman and representatives from
Knowledge Ecology International and the Open Rights Group.
[...]
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--
Soh Kam Yung
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