Fwd: [nyphp-talk] Re: [nycbug-talk] mysql lisc. question

[Pete Wright]

On Sat, Feb 05, 2005 at 09:28:07AM -0500, Marc Spitzer wrote:
> On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 00:58:57 -0500, Pete Wright <pete at finn.nomadlogic.org> wrote:
> > On Sat, Feb 05, 2005 at 12:43:39AM -0500, Matthew Terenzio wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > I'm no license expert. But I plan to be one in the coming
> > > > months/years.
> > > >
> > > > But this seems like a point of contention between different OS
> > > > licenses that might become divisive for certain causes.
> > 
> > yea i totally agree, on one hand i can imagine that MySQL AB has to
> > please the GPL camp and on the other they have to make money for a
> > product that they are devloping.  From my perspective it looks like
> > using a BSD or MIT style liscense may work out better for them...but
> > that obviously would not work for historical reasons.
> 
> BSD/MIT would be worse than useless to them.  You are looking at this
> form a tech POV and this is a business question.  The dual license
> with the gpl gives them a stick to beat up the user base with for
> money.  Think about it you have a business that uses mysql and get a
> letter from them about licencing compliance that says under the terms
> of the licence you currently have you need to make all your code down
> loadable on the web as an open source project, unless you give us
> money for a different license.  BSD/MIT do not allow you to have such
> a club and GPL does.
> 


i see both you and bob's point here...i was thinking (perhaps incorrectly)
that by using a BSD style lisc. they would not be forced to redistribute
code they did not want to.  thus allowing them to build new features into
thier product w/o having to release those changes back to the public: i.e.
they could intergrate the cluster technology into the mysql codebase w/o
having to worry about giving that IP away.  anyway i'm confused, and don't
really want to beat this topic...maybe if i catch you guy's later
in IRC i can make better sense out of the situation.

-p


~~
Peter Wright
pete at nomadlogic.org
www.nomadlogic.org/~pete
917.415.9866