MySQL and open source

[Richard Gaskin]

Björnke von Gierke wrote:

 > On 27 Nov 2010, at 15:53, Ruslan Zasukhin wrote:
 >> Sorry, If license not says 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 year...
 >> Then when? And who choose when?
 >
 > In cotract rights (like for example licensing) both parties agree
 > on common terms, and then follow trough with it. As partners,
 > they both agree on the terms. No one will agree that a year
 > delivery time is just for both sides, certainly not for an
 > electronic good.
 >
 > I still think you just wanted to make a weird point by feigning
 > stupidity.

It seemed to me that, although worded with a light-hearted reductio ad 
absurdum, Ruslan's post raised a valid question:

When using GPL code, what is an acceptable time limit for making your 
source available?

If the GPL itself doesn't specify this, it would seem a loophole that 
companies could use for making proprietary products with GPL'd code, 
risking only their reputation among FOSS advocates but without 
significant impact on their desire to protect their source.

Sure, it's not in the spirit of the law, but if it conforms to the 
letter of the law then to less ethical people it may not matter. To 
some, FOSS is just free (as in beer) stuff, and the other freedoms just 
don't matter.

Note that I'm not advocating such delays; on the contrary, I feel that 
if you're going to use GPL then you should do so wholeheartedly.   But 
for the GPL to be enforceable it must have some specifics, and this 
detail Ruslan raised seems a potentially significant one.


FWIW, in my own opinion (fully acknowledging that no one asked for it 
<g>), it seems to me that Oracle has thus far done nothing to hamper the 
open nature of MySQL.

The questions that have been raised here and elsewhere about MySQL 
licensing seem more inherent in the sometimes-non-obvious nature of a 
dual license, and to some degree the GPL itself, than anything Oracle 
has done since they acquired the DBMS.

This is why I prefer the clarity of the Creative Commons licenses for 
some projects; too bad they're not recommended for software. :(

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
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