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I am planning to start a commercial web project (like e.g. facebook) which requires a database.
I've read through all the licenses and FAQ's of MySQL, PostgreSQL and HSQLDB but I am still not certain if I need to purchase a license (commercial type) or have to publish the source code of my web project (open source license) since I am not a lawyer.
My Question is: Can I use any of the databases mentioned above for my commercial project without having to purchase a commercial license or publish my source?
If not, is there a database out there which I could use?
You can use MySQL and PostgreSQL commercially without any sort of purchase. You can purchase support agreements from them, if you need it.
You would not be required to publish your source code simply because you're using an open source database. Only if your project was a modification of the database engine would you need to provide the source.
edit: Per the comment by Pekka above, I realize that I was assuming this was a web site based project with a server-side database engine. If this is not the case, my answer could be misleading.
I contacted the mysql guys and they said that using MySQL as described in my initial post is free of charge:
Certainly during the development phase
there is no requirement to purchase a
license as you can use the Community
Server for that, however it would make
sense that once you went live you
would purchase MySQL Enterprise to
ensure you had access to the most
stable versions and support.
More information can be found at:
http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/oem/
Community Server is released under the
GNU General Public License Version 2
(also known as the GPLv2). This can
be found at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Provided your use of MySQL Community
Server complies with the GPLv2 then
you are free to use it. If you are in
any doubt, then it is worth looking at
Enterprise.
I also asked if I had to release/publish my code under a open source license if I used the community server. This is the answer I got:
I am not a lawyer, so please take this
into account. Also you probably
should be talking to the sales staff
on what you can and cannot do, you can
get their details from the contact
pages on www.mysql.com. However as I
understand the GPL unless you are
distributing MySQL with your code you
do not need to release your code under
the GPL. If, however, you do
distribute MySQL then you either need
an OEM/ISV license or your code must
be under the GPL, or one of the other
Open Source licenses covered in the
FOSS exceptions listed in the FAQ page
I gave you.
Safe answer: talk to a lawyer.
If I didn't know the safe answer, I'd tell you that you can use any one of those without paying anybody and without having to publish your source code. Luckily, I know the safe answer so I didn't tell you that.
edit — Note that finding the appropriate lawyer to talk to might be a difficult task. The point is that if you're actually starting a business and you feel uncertain of your ability to interpret license terms yourself (which is to say that you feel uncertain of your ability to be your own lawyer), the right thing to do is seek out legal advice from an actual attorney, and not from random unknown people on the internet.
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I have situation where developer claims that website which she is working for my firm is based on opensource CMS/framework Silverstripe. Second claim is that he want his code to be implemented on machine where I dont have access. In addition I have possibility to switch domain on/off from IP he provided me. I can't see actually what he coded and what is feature of cms.
My question is: Is that situation usual? And what are my rights as customer according to BSD licence? Can I view the code he is coding? Especially i have impression that he is renting software to me in that way. But want to be paid in terms of architect and develope hours. Can someone clarify situation to me?
It is "usual" for a developer to take advantage of open source components - in fact, there are many advantages of using proven open source components instead of building them from scratch (e.g. speed up the development, widely used open source component can be pretty robust etc).
You do need to make sure there isn't any licensing concerns, but in this particular case, you should be fine with BSD license, as it is one of the most permissive license out there. All you need to do is meet its attribution requirements (essentially including the original copyright and license text in tact).
RE your right to the source code... it really depends on what your contract is with the developer. The BSD license does not force developers to release any derivative work (i.e. work based on the BSD licensed code) to be also released under open source, and/or make the source code available. So you can view the source code of Silverstripe from its website (Silverstripe being open source), but your developer does not need to make the source code of her code and/or any modification she might have made on Silverstripe available to anyone. She could even sell Silverstipe code unchanged should she want to.
So whether you should have access to your developer's code is really governed by what agreement you have with the developer regarding her work i.e. whether you own all the IP produced by the developer including the source code.
IMHO the license is pretty clear: As long as you keep the copyright notice, you can do whatever you want (change, sell,...).
So what your developer is doing, is ok in terms of the SilverStripe license. The rest is up to your contract.
Is it usual? While I would try to avoid this and it's probably not the norm, it's hardly unusual. However, you are bound to the developer in the future, which might lead to problems:
"Change developer? Sure you can — if you start from scratch again."
"My rate just went up, but I'm sure it's cheaper than starting over."
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I'm currently working on a closed-source commercial web-project which uses MariaDB as the database. I wonder about the licensing of MariaDB. Do we have to get a license to use it with our commercial project? On the website, they mention the "GNU General Public License, version 2". What exactly does that mean?
http://kb.askmonty.org/v/mariadb-license
The GPL (GNU General Public License) states that you can use the software free of charge, but you cannot modify and sell it unless you release the source code. This means you can use it in your closed-source project.
MySQL was originally under the GPL, but has some different licensing issues since it was bought up by Oracle. You may still use it under the GPL, but Oracle also offers commercial licenses.
There is a couple of ways to use MariaDB with your commercial closed source software:
You can buy a license from Oracle to MySQL and then ask Monty Program Ab to give you the right to use all the changes MariaDB have done to MySQL with your project.
You can use a connector to MySQL that is not GPL and which provides access to more than one database. In this case the GPL of the server does not affect you. You can get such a connector for example from SkySQL.
Read also: http://kb.askmonty.org/en/licensing-faq
MariaDB is only distributed with the GNU GPLv2 license. There is not a commercial license, and there will never be for legal reasons.
However, why do you think you need a commercial license?
You need it only in 2 cases:
Your application uses some plugins that are commercial, or use a license which is not compatible with GPL2.
MariaDB is embedded in your application.
But usually applications just connect to a MariaDB server, and there is no legal issue, even if they are non-free.
I might be wrong, but i don't think that is going to be possible: MariaDB is a branch from MySQL GPLed version. Only MySQL (i.e: Oracle) holds the copyright, and hence is allowed to license the code under a different license. MariaDB does not (up to my knowledge) holds any copyright to the original MySQL source, and hence they cannot relicense it.
I do not think the provided answer is fully correct. The key issue here is how you use the DB, i.e. how you make DB requests, if you in any way link your code to the client library then you are required to release your project under a license compatible with GPL (i.e. the license compatible with the library you link to), I am not sure how it is when you just use a command line tool, but considering the spirit of GPL it would be the same.
Your situation depends on a technology used, but I believe you would use some kind of html middleware, the license of which would be the key issue here - if apache, then you are free to go on with your closed source project. If you are going to buy a host service for your project, then it is not your problem to worry about the license.
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Since last August 2009, I have been working on project but then decided to release it as an open source project. The purpose of this project is to provide an alternative to existing commercial & expensive solution.
So my question is, how can I get started ? The prototype has been ready since May and now being rewritten in Java. Which license type do I need to pursue ? LGPL? MIT?
Thank you,
John.
Figure out what you want people to be able to do with it.
Do you want people to be able to use it for anything, including commercial stuff, or do you want it to be locked down as open source crazy GNU stuff?
This list should be a good start.
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/category
Next, pick a place to host the project. Google Code is a great one and I believe they require your project is a certain license. So that makes your decision for you.
Another thing you might want to consider is source control. If you like SVN, Git, or something else that can matter. GitHub is a good place for git projects and almost all of your hosts will have svn support.
There are numerous Open Source licenses, but the ones I'd recommend are either BSD-style or the GPL. You'll have to decide which you like. Should people be able to take what you've done and wrap them into proprietary software and sell it, without necessarily giving back their changes? Up to you. A BSD-type license might get you more users, and a GPL-type license might get you more development help.
If you're thinking of dual-licensing, with an open source and a commercial license, you almost certainly want to go GPL for the open source license, since BSD-style doesn't leave you with enough extra rights to sell.
You keep the copyright on everything you do that's not for hire, unless you explicitly give it away. If you start getting help from other people, you need to decide what to do. You can ask for the copyright to be transferred to you, which will keep your complete copyright control at the expense of discouraging outside developers. You can trademark your software, to keep the branding, and this is independent of who owns what copyright. I'd advise talking to a lawyer about that, as trademark law isn't as clean as copyright law, and can vary from state to state. If you live in the US, you can probably get a lawyer referral from your local bar association, and it shouldn't cost much for an initial consultation.
As Jonathan said, check the OSI for information on possible licenses. Pick one from there. They'll all work, more or less, unlike a license you might write up (unless you know what you're doing). Some sites, like Sourceforge, don't allow projects that are not under an OSI-approved license, so you'll get more options with an OSI license. Moreover, lots of people are already familiar with the standard licenses, and you won't have to explain your license to them.
You could use any of the main Open Source licences - it is going to depend on what you want from the project.
GPL
Berkeley (minus advertizing clause)
MIT
Apache
You probably wouldn't use the LGPL unless what you're writing is a library.
So the Open Source Initiative for information abuot possible open source licences. Do not try to invent your own.
If you want be protective about the software you could for example one of
GPL
LGPL
But in many cases a more permissive license attracts more users.
MIT
Apache
are quite permissive.
If you want to do dual licensing then consider using GPL and a commercial license.
Before you pick a license and you have to answer yourself :
Do I want forks?
Do I want commercial usage of my software?
Do I want that my software is included in commercial software?
Do I want to enforce any license on forks?
Pick an already established license from here : http://www.opensource.org/licenses/category
If you want to setup your project then just have a look at GNU Hello, which I think is a good template to start setting up an open source project and regrading license it depends what you want from projects as explained by others already.
TL;DR Legal allows you to look up open source software licenses and get a summary, in plain English, of what you Can, Can't and Must do with the software. It also allows you to see the affects of combining two licenses, although that option is misleadingly called "Compare Licenses."
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There seems to be a lot of press regarding the announcement that Intellij is being made available for free as an open source tool. Yet from what I read of the licenses, that's only true if the end product is open source and free. If you plan on selling your end product, you can't use the free community version.
Have I misread something?
Only a subset of IntelliJ, the IntelliJ community edition has been released as open source software. The page that you linked to describes a special license of the "Ultimate" edition (which is not open source), that they are specifically giving for free to people who promise that they will only use it for writing open source software for non-commercial purposes.
According to the FAQ, the new open source version of IntelliJ is available under an Apache license.
To clarify:
The community edition of IntelliJ is available under the Apache license, which means you can use it for whatever purposes you want, including writing proprietary, commercial software. It also mean you can modify the code of IntelliJ yourself, sell modified versions of it, anything like that, as long as you abide by the Apache license.
The community edition does not have all of the functionality of the ultimate edition. It only has some of the functionality; for instance, it has support for Java and Groovy, but not Python or Scala. But the community edition can be used for any purposes you want, as long as you follow the terms of the Apache license.
The ultimate edition (which includes extra functionality as listed in their comparison) normally costs money. However, they are also offering the ultimate edition for free to people who promise that they are using it for non-commercial purposes for an open source project (I have no idea how they would actually enforce this, but that's beside the point). I believe this is an offer that they've had since before they released IntelliJ community edition as open source software; as a way of helping out open source development, without giving away everything to everyone.
So, go ahead and download the community edition, and use it for anything you want, from developing free software to developing commercial software to modifying IntelliJ yourself and selling it.
IntelliJ has a licenses folder that you can check out; For instance mine is located under here JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 129.111\license
You can see that there is a file called IDEA_OpenSource_license.txt
GRANT OF LICENSE
Subject to the terms, conditions, and limitations set forth in this
Agreement, including any amendments thereto, Licensor hereby grants to
Licensee a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable,royalty-free
license to use the Software for a period of 1 (one) year as follows:
(a) Licensee may: (i) install the version of the Software that has
been specified in License Certificate on multiple Clients and
operating systems; (ii) use the Software by Authorized Users solely
for the purpose of development of non-commercial open source projects
that meet the Open Source Definition at
http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.html, and (iii) make
one back-up copy of the Software solely for archival purposes.
(b) Licensee may not: (i) sell, redistribute (except as set forth in
Paragraph 5 herein), encumber, give, lend, rent, lease, sublicense, or
otherwise transfer the Software, or any portions of the Software, to
anyone without the prior written consent of Licensor; (ii) reverse
engineer, decompile, disassemble, modify, translate, make any attempt
to discover the source code of the Software, or create derivative
works from the Software, or (iii) use the Software for any commercial
purpose.
Which seems to completely go against what the Apache License allows you to do
I wonder if this is a relic of a previous License before it was open sourced?
Edit
Dmitry Jemerov has posted on the following on the Jetbrains blog [source]
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition is completely free and open-source,
licensed under the Apache 2 license and can be used for any kind of
development. Android Studio has the same licensing terms.
You will find that the free version has most of the features of IntelliJ removed, so you can get experience with IntelliJ, but if you really want to do anything of complexity with it you will need to buy the full-featured version.
But, if you use the free version how can anyone tell which IDE you used to create the java source?
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I won't release my software source code, and it will be a commercial application. Can I use the MySQL without paying any fee to MySQL? if it is illegal, any alternative database suggest?
Yes, and you don't have to release your project's source (but you do have to release any modification you make to MySQL itself (only those not the whole program) if you also release your project in binary form containing the modified MySQL code)
In more simple terms, if you modify MySQL and those modifications end up being distributed in binary form you have to publicly release the aforementioned modifications.
MySQL itself is open source and can be used as a standalone product in a commercial environment. If you're running mySQL on a web server, you are free to do so for any purpose, commercial or not. If you run a website that uses mySQL, you won't need to release any of your code. You'll be fine.
mySQL has enterprise licenses with (I think) a different code base, and premium support by Sun, but those are entirely optional.
There are limitations on redistribution of mySQL within a closed source product, and linking against mySQL libraries as was pointed out in a different comment. As for redistribution:
OEMs, ISVs, VARs and other
distributors that combine and
distribute commercially licensed
software with MySQL software and do
not wish to distribute the source code
for the commercially licensed software
under version 2 of the GNU General
Public License (the "GPL") must enter
into a commercial license agreement
with Sun.
if you are looking to redistribute mySQL along with a commercial product, check their legal page. I think most companies circumvent this by installing the mySQL server separately.
GPL and linking against client libraries?
I don't know what the fact that the GPL (the license mySQL is distributed under) forbids linking against closed source software means for applications that do not link against mySQL directly, but ship with mySQL client libraries. Do those have to be Open Source? If anybody would like to shed a light on this, in a separate answer or a comment, I'd be most interested.
From what I understood:
If you use MySQL "as is" just for the testing purposes - you are free to use it.
If you modify the MySQL
you are still free to use it BUT you have to make the modifications you made public (GPL is "transfering")
If you redistribute MySQL or work derivated from MySQL in any way, then this says it all:
Q3: As a commercial OEM, ISV or VAR, when should I purchase a commercial license for MySQL software?
A: OEMs, ISVs and VARs that want the benefits of embedding commercial binaries of MySQL software in their commercial applications but do not want to be subject to the GPL and do not want to release the source code for their proprietary applications should purchase a commercial license from Oracle. Purchasing a commercial license means that the GPL does not apply, and a commercial license includes the assurances that distributors typically find in commercial distribution agreements.