Hi Mike,
On Jun 8, 2006, at 10:52 AM, mos wrote:
At 03:09 AM 6/8/2006, Rob Desbois wrote:
Douglas,
If you are selling a product which requires your users download
MySQL or requires you distribute it with the product, you need a
commercial licence.
$595?! Ouch indeed...it's much cheaper if you're not using InnoDB,
although obviously that's a pretty major trade-off.
Rob,
The $595 license applies to any MySQL database, whether it
uses InnoDb or not. So if you are just using MyISAM tables, and you
distribute applications without source code (outside of the GPL),
then it is $595 per year. From my understanding, this "per year"
license also applies to customers receiving your application. So if
you sell 5,000 applications per year, over 5 years that would be
25,000 applications. If after that you stop selling the software or
you go out of business, your customers will still have to shell out
$14.8 million per year in licensing if they still use the software,
whether they need support or not from MySQL AB. Ouch!
You are confusing the OEM licensing and MySQL Network. Network
hasn't been around for 2 years yet, so you might be confusing the
previous incarnations with what currently exists.
MySQL Network is designed for people that aren't distributing the
MySQL server itself, but just using it in their own applications,
such as websites and so on. It is designed to give added value to
MySQL community edition, such as advisors, support, etc... This can
optionally include commercial versions if you don't want GPL software
for some reason.
The OEM license is designed if you want to redistribute MySQL bundled
in a product and generally is not charged as a per-year thing, but as
a per-shipped unit price. For large deals, such as 25,000
applications, this would be negotiated separately taking into
considerations such as how much you charge, how many you are
shipping, how many you pre-purchase, etc... so I can't say exactly
how everything works for your individual case.
There is a very important difference between the two, as the Network
includes a lot of extra things that most likely your customers
wouldn't want or need, so hence it is more expensive.
See:
http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/
http://www.mysql.com/oem/products.html
http://www.mysql.com/oem/support.html
Mike
>
<
---------- Original Message ----------
FROM: Douglas Sims <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
TO: mos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
DATE: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 23:15:07 -0500
SUBJECT: Re: MySQL (GPL License)
Ouch.
Thanks for the clarification. Two additional thoughts:
1) Does this apply (I think not) even if you don't compile with or
link with the MySQL database? If you just connect to it with ports
or sockets, as we usually do with web applications, you still don't
need a commercial license?
2) $595/year is still a lot cheaper than most of the alternatives
such as MS-SQL or Oracle.
I got into this debate with our Microsoft rep over lunch about a year
ago. My company does consulting with a couple of large (US
Fortune-500 companies) and unfortunately one of these is wedded to
MS. I work with MS-SQL quite a lot and generally find it inferior to
MySQL and as Randy (the MS rep) was talking how you really did need
to buy commercial licenses for MySQL, I pointed out that no you
really didn't for web applications. (He went on to point out what
great support MS SQL had - I quickly agreed and said that MS SQL had
the best support we could ever ask for... it's called "Google."
Randy still paid for the lunch :-)
Douglas Sims
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Jun 7, 2006, at 10:20 PM, mos wrote:
> At 08:15 PM 6/7/2006, you wrote:
>> I believe that if you are only using MySQL for your company's
>> internal needs, whether from a web server or for deployment to
other
>> company-owned locations, you don't need a commercial license. For
>> example, if your company owns fifiteen stores, you could set up a
>> MySQL-based point-of-sale system at each one without needing a
>> commercial license. You only need to release your source code
if you
>> release your compiled code.
>>
>> Also, I believe the GPL requirement for sharing only applies if
you
>> have modified MySQL's object code, i.e. compiled your code into
it or
>> it into your code or linked object code to it. If you are simply
>> installing it as a database and communicating to it through DBI or
>> ODBC or some other means which uses sockets or ports, you don't
need
>> to release your code under the GPL.
>>
>> Thus, you hardly ever need to purchase a commercial license.
>>
>> Please note that this is just my understanding. I hope someone
will
>> correct if I have misstated anything here.
>
> Unfortunately that's not what MySQL AB licensing person told me.
> The license is more strict than that. If your company distributes
> an application that uses MySQL database inside the company (even
> inside the same building), and you don't give the other dept the
> source code (so it falls outside the gpl license) then the dept
> receiving the application needs to have a MySQL license. In other
> words, the complete application source code must follow the
> application.
>
> If you have a commercial application running in Windows, and expect
> to sell a lot of applications, it will cost you $595 per database
> server *per year*.
> See https://shop.mysql.com/network.html?rz=s2. I didn't realize
> myself it is now a per server/per year pricing either and it came
> as quite a shock to me system. This can add up if you have a
> thousand applications in circulation because each customer needs to
> pay $595/year. If this is too pricey for you, there are open source
> databases out there that are free to use and free to distribute.
> FireBird and ProgreSQL come to mind. And there are other commercial
> databases where you pay up front and have no distribution fees
> whatsoever.
>
> Mike
>
>
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Regards,
Harrison
--
Harrison C. Fisk, Trainer and Consultant
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com
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