Thank you for the research.
When they say "Distribution for MySQL would mean more than one "copy" installed in a
production environment", by production environment, they must mean a business.
For example I can use MySQL on my home computer to keep track of my record collection,
and I can also recreate the same database on my wife's computer so that she can keep
track of her CDs, all for free.
(I don't expect you to answer that! If I want to know for sure I can always ask MYSQL.)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matthew Zito [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> I figured the time had come to stop speculating about MySQL's
> licensing
> policy and get the answer straight from the horse's mouth, as it were.
> So I contacted MySQL and posed a couple of scenarios to them.
> Here's my
> questions and their responses (my stuff is the quoted part):
>
> "
> > in all of these examples, a non-GPLed application is being
> described:
> >
> > 1) A web-based application for an internal or external audience
> > running with mysql as the backend only?
>
> If it is a web-based application that will be created and
> distributed, a
> license is required. If it is an internally built and internally used
> application running on one server, a commercial license is
> not required
> (more then one installation requires a license for each - it will be
> considered internal distribution).
> >
> > 2) A compiled win32 application installed on employee desktops
> > that
> > connects to a centralized mysql database for running queries?
>
> As long as the database is not installed on each individual machine,
> only one license is required (unless it is an internally built
> application running on one server - it could be used for free).
>
>
> >
> > 3) A compiled win32 application that installs mysql
> locally on the
> > user's machine?
>
> A license would be required for each installation, it would be
> considered internal distribution.
> >
> > 4) A web-based application where mysql has been
> "distributed" to a
> > number of database servers and is running on those database
> > servers?
> >
> > The confusion seems to center around the word
> "distribute". What
> > constitutes distribution of MySQL? Thanks very much for your
> > help.
>
> Distribution for MySQL would mean more than one "copy" installed in a
> production environment, either internally or externally.
>
> Also note that if an end user used MySQL with a 3rd party commercial
> application, a non-GPL commercial license of MySQL is required.
> "
>
> So, that clears some things up for me, but this licensing policy does
> seem unnecessarily confusing.
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Author: Jacques Kilchoer
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Received on Fri Jun 20 2003 - 15:01:12 CDT
