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MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Silicon.com looks at new licensing terms for the MySQL database. "On Thursday night, MySQL published a licence exception that, the company said, permits PHP to resume its previous practice of bundling MySQL components called libraries, said Zack Urlocker, MySQL's vice president of marketing."
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MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Posted Mar 16, 2004 20:15 UTC (Tue) by sandy_pond (guest, #9734) [Link]

Even with this license change isn't MySQL the only one of the LAMP apps that is not free when used with proprietary apps?

With Postgresql sitting out there with a BSD license, I wonder if over time LAMP will become LAPP.

MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Posted Mar 16, 2004 22:38 UTC (Tue) by piman (subscriber, #8957) [Link]

MySQL is always free. The proprietary apps people wish to use it with are the problem.

MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Posted Mar 17, 2004 3:46 UTC (Wed) by jamesh (subscriber, #1159) [Link]

Before the license change, the problems weren't just with proprietary apps. Unless you think of PHP and Apache as proprietary.

MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Posted Mar 17, 2004 2:05 UTC (Wed) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link]

Since MySQL is released under the same license that the Linux kernel, then
according to that theory the LAMP will become the *BAPP.

Seriously though, the problem here is that the PHP license is GPL
incompatible, having the advertising clause (clause 6).

MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Posted Mar 17, 2004 14:23 UTC (Wed) by sandy_pond (guest, #9734) [Link]

"Since MySQL is released under the same license that the Linux kernel, then according to that theory the LAMP will become the *BAPP."

Well ... you can run proprietary apps on Linux because the libs are LGPL ... that's my point.

PALP? Python on Apache on Linux with Postgres

Posted Mar 17, 2004 8:57 UTC (Wed) by leonbrooks (guest, #1494) [Link]

LARP? Linux Apache Ruby Postgres - we need an OS starting with 'c' so we can claim to base all of our products on CRAP. (-:

PALP? Python on Apache on Linux with Postgres

Posted Mar 17, 2004 9:34 UTC (Wed) by angdraug (subscriber, #7487) [Link]

Here you are: Cygwin...

News at 11: CRAP in a Fire Department

Posted Mar 17, 2004 9:38 UTC (Wed) by angdraug (subscriber, #7487) [Link]

...forgot to mention that it even works: e.g., Denis Valoha runs Samizdat engine (Ruby/Postgres) on Cygwin/Win98 at a fire department intranet here in Minsk :)

MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Posted Mar 17, 2004 10:23 UTC (Wed) by hingo (guest, #14792) [Link]

It might be too late for tomorrow, but I think LWN could toss up a nice article about this issue. Reading the artcle above, I'm still not sure what exactly the problem was, what has been solved and how and what has not been solved.

One thing to remember is that when using LAMP as a platform for a proprietary application, you can usually ignore the licensing altogether, since you are not distributing anything. You are merely publishing a web page. Therefore the GPL thing is not a problem.

MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Posted Mar 17, 2004 14:56 UTC (Wed) by sandy_pond (guest, #9734) [Link]

It'd be nice to get a clean clarification of this. For instance, if any of my web sites uses some app that's not on MySQL's exception list then do I need to buy a commercial MySQL license. Also, exactly which MySQL interfaces can an app talk to MySQL without worrying about license issues.

MySQL lifts restrictive licensing terms (Silicon.com)

Posted Mar 18, 2004 0:27 UTC (Thu) by dilinger (subscriber, #2867) [Link]

The problem is that MySQL switched their client libraries from LGPL to GPL with the release of MySQL4. PHP4's license (aka, PHP license 3.0) is incompatible with the GPL, therefore distributors are forced to ship PHP4 linked against MySQL3 client libs.

A few months ago, the MySQL folks attempted to rectify this situation by including an exception clause that allowed derived works to be licensed under the GPL and the PHP license 3.0. However, only those two licenses are allowed. This means that PHP cannot link against both MySQL4 and Apache (as Apache use yet another free license). Thus, the exception wasn't all that useful.

On Thursday, the exception clause was extended to allow for pretty much all OSI-approved free licenses to be used in software that links with MySQL4's client libraries. However, they also added a rather onerous clause, as well; you may not distribute the MySQL server with software that activates the exception clause. This means PHP, Apache, and MySQL server may not be distributed on the same media. That makes this exception clause useless to distributors, as well. Not only that, but the exception clause restricts automated downloads as a means of distribution. So, `apt-get install php4-mysql mysql-server` is not allowed; it is an automated means of pulling in software that activates the clause (php4 linked against mysql), as well as the MySQL server (which is expressly forbidden). Overall, a nasty restriction.

Hopefully, the next iteration of the MySQL client libs exception clause will work out these issues, and allow distributions to link PHP4 against MySQL4.

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