Can I use mySQL in my commercial windows project? Are there any license issues? Which version should I use?
Surprisingly, since the server is not linked with your application directly, you can distribute the MySQL Community server unmodified or modified, as long as you follow the GPL terms. (in short, if you modify the server, you need to make the modified source available)
The client library is another story, however. If you are distributing your commercial project, you cannot distribute the MySQL client libraries freely along with your software if your software is not GPL-licensed or another OSI-approved open-source license.
This is called the MySQL FOSS license exemption, more can be found out about it here:
http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/foss-exception/
http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/index.html
You will either need to purchase a license to distribute the mysql client libraries, use another client library (highly unlikely to happen, as there aren't many good libraries that don't wrap the official one) or make your software open-source.
(I am not exactly sure on the legality, but it might be possible to have your customers download the mysql client libraries themselves, but I think it will still constitute 'linking' against a closed source app, therefore still violating the terms. In either case, this is definitely an added hassle for a commercial app.)
It might not be an option for you, but it's worth noting that PostgreSQL is licensed under the BSD license, and sqlite3 is in public domain. Both are a bit more friendly towards linking with commercial code.
As per their explanation, you can use it for free but you will be obligated to release your commercial windows project under the GPL. To keep your code proprietary, you need a commercial license.
Have you every try to search the official site of MySQL for license information?
-- (update) --
OK, since you are "not confirm", let me summarize in short:
"If you want to use MySQL in your commercial program, you must either make your program GPL (i.e., open source, which apparantly not your choice) or Pay Them For a Commercial License".
Related
I am creating a multi platform application and want to use MySQL as the database behind. I read about GPL License. The license wants me to publish my source code, if I use the free version of MySQL. I dont want to publish my source code.
So is it allowed to use MySQL as the database and build for example an mobile App with Android, that uses the data from there, without publishing my Android source code?
Thank you
You don't need to bundle MySQL with your Android; You probably host your MySQL along with your web server, isn't it?
So, the answer is No, you don't need commercial license for your App.
At first please have a look at the MySQL licensing page what model really applies to your software.
I think as long as you only want to connect to a MySQL database you somehow can do what you want (but don't bundle the client libraries). The rule of thumb is don't include/bundle anything from Oracle/MySQL and you are on the good side.
It is ok if the user downloads and installs the MySQL-package, but it is not you who delivers it with your software (which would be bundling again).
I think it is also ok to write a script which automatically downloads and installs it from the Oracle pages (note - there are better ways: e.g. dpkg), but I'm not a licensing expert.
The GPL FAQ might help you to get a sense for using and publishing GPLed software.
An overview/comparison of free and open-source software licenses can be found at Wikipedia.
Hope that helped a bit.
*Jost
Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.
Closed 10 years ago.
Improve this question
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.
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center.
Closed 7 years ago.
Improve this question
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.
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center.
Closed 7 years ago.
Improve this question
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?
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center.
Closed 7 years ago.
Improve this question
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.