Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Relicensing of MySQL Man Pages Just a Bug

Posted by Unknown on from the oracle-still-evil dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As reported earlier on Slashdot it appeared the license covering the MySQL man pages was changed from the GPL to something less good. However, as speculated, this appears to be a bug." The build system was grabbing the wrong files, oops. The fix should be coming shortly: "Once the fixes have been made to the build system, we will rebuild the latest 5.1, 5.5, 5.6 releases plus the latest 5.7 milestone and make those available publicly asap."

68 comments

  1. Re:MSDN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    For what its worth, I'll continue using MSDN for my professional manual pages and welcome anyone with open arms to use too.

    Anyone with open arms? Do MSDN users usually slit their wrists?

  2. WTF.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Less good?

    I think I'm just going to stop reading Slashdot before it turns me in to a retard.

    1. Re:WTF.. by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Too late!

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    2. Re:WTF.. by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      It's a troll running wild.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    3. Re:WTF.. by RichardJenkins · · Score: 1

      I know right. How hard is it to say something fewer good??

  3. Duh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Duh? You know, maybe the MariaDB people should actually investigate things before making massive conclusion jumps? Sowing FUD against Oracle and MySQL for their benefit seems to be more important than getting the truth.

    1. Re:Duh? by fazey · · Score: 2

      So they just HAPPENED to accidentally include a new license? eh, sounds fishy. Oracle screws up everything they touch. I was at Sun Microsystems for some ZFS training shortly after the Oracle buyout... the look of defeat these guys had...

    2. Re:Duh? by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      Duh? You know, maybe the MariaDB people should actually investigate things before making massive conclusion jumps?

      Let's give oracle the benefit of the doubt: even if this was inserted by the NSA, MariaDB gave the proper response. If a car manufacturer accidentally released a car with a warranty that required people use fuel brand $X, people should rightly make hay about it.

    3. Re:Duh? by bsane · · Score: 1

      No everyone should stop new development against MySQL or MariaDB (which will eventually sell us out, just like they did in the past), and start using a better- truly FOS solution: Postgres, you'll be glad you did.

  4. It's only called a bug... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... because someone noticed it. <_<

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:It's only called a bug... by girlintraining · · Score: 1

      ... because someone noticed it.

      That's true of all bugs, in the abstract. If a tree falls in a forest, and all that. This seems like a legitimate answer -- remember that they maintain a separate repository for their commercial offering. It's entirely possible someone fat-fingered during compilation.

      Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    2. Re:It's only called a bug... by LordNimon · · Score: 1

      Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.

      Well, with that logic, Oracle never does anything evil.

      --
      And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
      To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
    3. Re:It's only called a bug... by girlintraining · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, with that logic, Oracle never does anything evil.

      Ah, to paraphrase, "there is a principle which is a bar against all knowledge and will never fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance -- and that is contempt prior to investigation." You can't simply say "because this person/group/organization has done so many evil things in the past, this has to be as well." You start engaging in that kind of thinking regularly and before you know it you'll be a talk show host or running for political office.

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    4. Re:It's only called a bug... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://insidemysql.com/the-mysql-man-pages-are-available-under-the-gpl/

    5. Re:It's only called a bug... by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."

      That's true, but in this case it seems unlikely to be stupidity.

      If they maintain a separate repository for their commercial offering, then how did the commercial files get into the code base? It hardly seems like something that would happen accidentally. I don't claim it's impossible, but it seems very darned unlikely and far too "coincidental". Like, "lightning struck my homework" kind of coincidental.

    6. Re:It's only called a bug... by lightknight · · Score: 1

      Stupidity is evil, and a burden to everyone who is afflicted by it. How much cleaner the world might be, were it not for the insatiable miscommunications that divide us.

      --
      I am John Hurt.
    7. Re:It's only called a bug... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure that guy who jumped in the tiger's den at the zoo thought the same thing: just because tigers always eat meat, doesn't mean they'll eat me, right? He was dead wrong.

    8. Re:It's only called a bug... by cold+fjord · · Score: 2

      It's only called a bug...... because someone noticed it.

      I doubt that Oracle would have tried to slip this under the radar. I would expect them to make an announcement that it was coming and ignore the complaints.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    9. Re:It's only called a bug... by ackthpt · · Score: 1

      Well, with that logic, Oracle never does anything evil.

      Ah, to paraphrase, "there is a principle which is a bar against all knowledge and will never fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance -- and that is contempt prior to investigation." You can't simply say "because this person/group/organization has done so many evil things in the past, this has to be as well." You start engaging in that kind of thinking regularly and before you know it you'll be a talk show host or running for political office.

      Hey now, let's not say such hurtful things!

      I do have a probably chalking this whole thing up to a minor slip up - there was a licence there to read, which was purposefully changed as opposed to a lack of licence so some boilerplate was placed in there.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    10. Re:It's only called a bug... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have never seen someone so completely fail to miss the point. The point wasn't that you should automatically assume good faith; rather that you should make no assumption of faith period until you've investigated. Withhold judgment until you actually know something. To go with a modified version of your analogy (which is truly awful, as tigers have no concept of right or wrong, nor is eating meat inherently evil unless you're one of THOSE people), it would be like finding a person half-eaten near a village of former cannibals. It could very well be that they were responsible, or he could have been eaten by the tiger who escaped from the idiot zoo, which would absolve the former cannibals. Either way, you have no way of knowing until you investigate, and making a judgment before knowing the facts is where the danger lies. That doesn't mean you shouldn't suspect the former cannibals, but suspicion should not equate to guilt and subsequent hostility.

    11. Re:It's only called a bug... by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.

      Well, with that logic, Oracle never does anything evil.

      The expression is actually "that which can be adequately explained by stupidly." There are many evils that could only be explained by once-in-a-million-years stupidity, which probably wouldn't be an adequate explanation.

    12. Re:It's only called a bug... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Occam's razor says otherwise. We can and should.

    13. Re:It's only called a bug... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Ah, to paraphrase, "there is a principle which is a bar against all knowledge and will never fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance -- and that is contempt prior to investigation." You can't simply say "because this person/group/organization has done so many evil things in the past, this has to be as well

      No, you can't. On the other hand, if you don't say "because this p/g/o has done so many evil things in the past, this probably is as well" then you're a fool at best, likely an idiot, and possibly insane.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:It's only called a bug... by ackthpt · · Score: 0

      It's only called a bug...... because someone noticed it.

      I doubt that Oracle would have tried to slip this under the radar. I would expect them to make an announcement that it was coming and ignore the complaints.

      Then a lackey trying to polish Ellison's yacht?

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    15. Re:It's only called a bug... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Oracle Quantum Theory (OQT), once a new licensing constraint is introduced, you cannot know its location specific license clause and intention at the same time. Once the clause is observed, the intention is unknown. The behavior does follow an OBYO (Oracle Bent-You Over) distribution though, following the OCFY (Oracle Certainly Fucked-You) principle.

  5. My Clean PC spam/virus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It appears the My Clean PC spam/virus has struck slashdor!

    1. Re:My Clean PC spam/virus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OMG! How can we clean that virus off of my computers? Will MyCleanPC do the trick? :rollseyes:

    2. Re:My Clean PC spam/virus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it is just a bug in MySQL man page compiling script.

    3. Re:My Clean PC spam/virus by cjjjer · · Score: 1

      Or just a new way for /. to advertise, randomly post spam themselves to avoid the ad-blockers. If one person clicks... profit!

  6. Coming from Oracle ... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... I can believe the 'bug' explanation. They've been cranking out bugs since 1977. So they're clearly the experts on the subject.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Coming from Oracle ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ... I can believe the 'bug' explanation. They've been cranking out bugs since 1977. So they're clearly the experts on the subject.

      Is that 1977 before or after running TZUpdater?

    2. Re:Coming from Oracle ... by djbckr · · Score: 2

      It's a little disingenuous to say that. Everybody writes bugs. I consider myself to be an expert coder, I've been doing it for well over 20 years with hundreds of successful projects. I've lead some of the best teams. And yet, no matter what, *everything* has bugs. Some big, some small. Granted, Oracle is rather slow in fixing general bugs. But I've found that with support, if you have a show-stopper bug in your database, they will write a hot-fix for you. I still don't like Larry Ellison though.

    3. Re:Coming from Oracle ... by jd2112 · · Score: 1

      ... I can believe the 'bug' explanation. They've been cranking out bugs since 1977. So they're clearly the experts on the subject.

      But their software is perfect and if you are having problems it must be because you are doing something downright stupid. Or at least that is the impression I get from Oracle support.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
  7. You mean Big Bad Oracle really isn't up... by exabrial · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know Oracle is a supposed to be super evil lawyer driven blah blah blah... but just so we get the story straight, Monty sells MySql to Sun, Oracle buys Sun, Monty wants MySql back as MariaDb. At this point, Monty and the MySql community have cried wolf one to many fucking times. I really just don't care anymore.

    1. Re:You mean Big Bad Oracle really isn't up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, Monty sold MySQL to Sun, then after the terms of his agreement were met, he forked an open source project and we now have MariaDB. All legal and moral and above board. Lots of us are grateful as well, due to the improvements that MariaDB is bringing over MySQL.

  8. That's funny by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    What would happen if the build system picked up some docs on constructing an atom bomb? Could it stop by and pick some up from the NSA? And maybe a six pack and and a carton of Lucky Strikes?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:That's funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also wondered how the build system could grab files on it's own. Does it have an AI? Is it, by any chance, called Skynet? Could this how everything starts to end? One shouldn't be surprised that the end of mankind starts at Oracle. They quickly need to instate a Ballmer like figure to avert ouir extinction!

  9. One word. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BULLSHIT!

  10. Bug=/=Trial Balloon by Culture20 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why is it possible for an automated process to insert the wrong license? Because the change is being planned or at least prepared for. This could have been a trial balloon.

    1. Re:Bug=/=Trial Balloon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Perhaps because there are paid versions of MySQL available which presumably aren't GPL licensed.

  11. Color me surprised. by flimflammer · · Score: 3, Funny

    That people were entertaining notions otherwise was asinine, regardless of it involving Oracle. This might have actually been something to worry about if the documents weren't already dual licensed. This sort of mistake has been made time and time again, and will continue to be made time and time again.

  12. Don't believe it by mlwmohawk · · Score: 0

    Seriously, a "bug" changes the license on files? A "bug?"

    Please! Spare me! A license is a legal document.

    They hoped it would not have been noticed and when it was, "oops!"

    Sorry, Larry is a dirt bag, always has been, always will be.

  13. MySQL up to their old tricks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This has happened before, I can remember at least 3 other times. I wrote about one case in 2005 (http://theconsultantcto.com/opensource) and right after my article had its 15 minutes of fame, they rewrote the license.

    They'll just keep doing this until finally no one notices and voila, your presumed OSS licensed software ain't yours to do with as you will.

  14. 2nd "bug" from oracle this month by YoungManKlaus · · Score: 1

    after "accidentially" removing the tz-update tool and then reinstating it with a "sorry, was an accident"

  15. squash the bug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    squash the bug... it's located between the chair and the keyboard on station #...