Be Cautious About MySQL Licensing (was Re: Database suggestions?)

[Stephen Barncard]

AGAIN, gentlemen, I say, why bother with running (and worrying about) 
your own server and licensing when there are good ISP's out there 
that INCLUDE MYSQL along with one's account, like PHP, python, perl, 
shell, etc.

I can have just about as many MYSQL databases as I'd ever want with 
my $20/month code monster account. (They also have a $10/plan) It's 
really fast and they plan to upgrade to 5.xx this fall!

I don't give a  %$#%$# about lawyers or licensing or whatever because 
they have a site license or something at my ISP...and the setup for a 
new database takes about 5 minutes...and I don't have to get my hands 
dirty.

It feels like it's almost free this way! So what's the problem?

sqb

At 2:35 PM -0700 5/14/05, Dan Shafer wrote:
>In this discussion, it's important not to lose sight of Chipp 
>Walters' early comment that MySQL is NOT free for commercial use. I 
>was always under the impression that it was but when Chipp raised 
>that with me about 18 months ago and I went to the MySQL folks to 
>investigate, I found a dismayingly confusing plethora of license 
>terms and warnings that frankly scared me away from using the 
>product.

...

>
>At the end of the day, and in keeping with my desire to stay out of 
>courtrooms, I decided not to use MySQL in any situation where there 
>might ever be a doubt about the licensing issue. That essentially 
>means I don't use MySQL unless I'm designing an app I'm willing to 
>distribute free as open source.
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Dan Shafer, Co-Chair