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MySQL Changes License To Avoid GPLv3

Posted by kdawson on from the love-that-v2 dept.

munchola writes "MySQL has quietly changed the license it uses for its database to avoid being forced to move to the forthcoming GPLv3. CBRonline is reporting that Kaj Arno, MySQL VP of community relations, revealed the license change on his blog, noting it was made 'in order to make it an option, not an obligation for the company to move to GPLv3.'"

5 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Good for them. by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have severe problems with the GPLv3 as-is; I feel they're trying to stuff a brand of morality and a system of thought down the throats of programmers who licensed their creations in good faith under the GPLv2.

    Anyone who takes a step back and says "now wait a tick" to that kind of thing, I like. Maybe the GPLv3 won't be as bad as it seems, but that little "or any later version" clause is one that simply should not be included for projects of any magnitude.

    --
    "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
  2. Re:Hoopla! by Jussi+K.+Kojootti · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "has become"? Maybe you should do some research find out what Free Software means and has meant for as long as the term has existed... What you are suggesting is not even close to the definition pretty much everyone else uses.

  3. Uhm. And? by repvik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Let me see.... So, they're changing the licence from now on. But I can still download a GPLv2-and-later licenced one that just isn't the latest version.

    So, are they planning on adding features that will be incompatible with GPLv3?

  4. Quietly? by iandunn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "MySQL has quietly changed the license it uses... VP of community relations, revealed the license change on his blog..."

    How does the VP of community relations announcing it on his blog qualify as 'quietly changing'? What do you want them to do, throw a bloody parade? Not everything is a secret plot to destroy OSS.

  5. Re:This makes no sense by Cyclops · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Well, if MySQL should be usable with GPL2, the "or later clause" may cause problems. For example a GPLv3-only-licensed patch would force MySQL to the new license.
    This makes absolutely no sense:
    1. they have the right to REJECT the patch
    2. they require copyright assignment so they could change the license anyway


    Somehow, when a company capitalizes on the "commercial" confusion, it doesn't surprise me at all that they would make this "error" (I don't think it's accidental, I mean to suggest they are faking a confusion, as in the "commercial" term, in order to forbid anyone from making a GPL V3 fork of MySQL)

    The "commercial" term "confusion" they capitalize upon make many think that in order to make a commercial application they would have to get the proprietary version of MySQL.

    That, of course, makes no sense at all. The FSF explains it very succintly, and David Wheeler quite recently explained it in a very detailed manner.