At 04:33 PM 2/22/2007, Barry Newton wrote:
At 05:00 PM 2/22/2007, mos wrote:
On the other hand, if you developed a web application that ran on
MySQL (an accounting package say) and you want to distribute it to 1000
MySQL users without giving them your source code, then you will need a
MySQL AB license for each copy ($595,000 in total) even if you give the
software away for free.
The last line of the license notice reads: "Contact MySQL AB if you need
clarification of these terms or if you need
to ask about alternative arrangements. "
This kind of suggests to me that they're willing to talk. I expect that
as long as you're willing to pay *something*, there's probably a lot of
room for negotiation. It's distinctly not in their interest to eliminate
collateral development efforts. And there are already several products
out there which do connect with MySQL and cost < $100.
Barry Newton
Barry,
Yes, I'm sure they'll negotiate if you have a few hundred
customers. But when starting out, the first hundred or so sales will cost
you $595 and that will dictate how much you can charge for an application.
At that price you'd have to sell your software for at least $1000, and
perhaps more. If some competitor comes in with a lower price because he's
using Firebird or PostgreSQL, he can eat your lunch. He can sell his
software for $500 when you have to charge $1000 just to make the same
profit. I just don't see MySQL well suited for commercial applications
unless you're charging a few thousand dollars for it and the customer is
already a MySQL shop. If it your customers are using Oracle or DB2 then
they're used to paying $50,000 for software, then sure, royalties are ok.
But MySQL shops usually choose MySQL because they are cheap (without
sufficient funds) and don't have a lot of money to spend on application
software. That's just one guy's opinion. :)
Mike
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