Inferno: Fw: MySQL.org's position (fwd)

[Jim Choate]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Widenius" <monty at mysql.com>
To: "Philippe Paravicini" <quietsky at pacbell.net>
Cc: "MySQL" <mysql at lists.mysql.com>; <mike at mysql.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 12:15 PM
Subject: MySQL.org's position


>
> Hi!
>
> Thanks Philippe for forwarding this to us:
>
> >>>>> "P" == Philippe Paravicini <quietsky at pacbell.net> writes:
>
> P> mySql.org's position (whomever they are)
> P> ***
> P> Dear Philippe:
>
> P> mySQL.org is a not for profit organization dedicated to promoting
> P> and further enhancing the mySQL database engine.  Like all open
> P> source projects we welcome community input to help enhance the
> P> product.
>
> P> The MySQL AB company is a commercial entity that sells licensed
> P> versions of the mySQL database.  They can do this because they
> P> own the copyright of all the source code they license and do
> P> not accept community contribution unless they can obtain the
> P> copyright from the contributor.  Obviously you can see that
> P> this goes against the spirit of Open Source development, hence
> P> mySQL.org has been formed.
>
> P> mySQL.org is not involved in any litigation with either NuSphere
> P> or MySQL AB.  While it is true that NuSphere and MySQL AB are
> P> involved in a legal battle over some sort of contract, we here
> P> at mySQL.org have chosen not to take sides or speculate on the
> P> issue.
>
> P> If you have questions or concerns over the NuSphere/MySQL AB
> P> lawsuit (which it appear that you do), please address your
> P> questions to either NuSphere or MySQL AB.
>
> P> Regards,
>
> P> Mike Furgal  -  mySQL.org - Where mySQL is your SQL.
>
> Thanks Philippe for forwarding this.
>
> I find Mike's position a little strange here.
>
> Mike Furgal is a full time employee of NuSphere Inc. As NuSphere has
> violated the GPL license, he has no right to use, modify or distribute
> the MySQL source code anymore.  (This is straight from section 4 of
> the GPL license).  Mike has the full right to do modification to
> Gemini, but he can't touch the MySQL code.  That NuSphere did release
> the source code for Gemini after we sued them for violating the GPL
> license doesn't give them back the right to use MySQL under GPL.
>
> It's NuSphere Inc that formed mysql.org and it's NuSphere that is the
> driving force behind mysql.org.  To say that mysql.org is not a part
> of this dispute is a strange statement.
>
> mysql.org is involved in litigation with MySQL AB as MySQL AB has sued
> NuSphere for tradmark infringement, of which mysql.org is a part.
> Even under the interim agreement we did with NuSphere, we never
> granted NuSphere to use our trademark in this way.
>
> It's true that for changes into the core parts of the MySQL server we
> require the submitter to give us a shared copyright to the code, but
> this is something also other open source projects requires.  For
> example FSF also require the author to sign over the copyright of any
> contributed code to them.
>
> The reason that we need to get the copyright for the parts that goes
> into the core server is that to finance MySQL development we need to
> be able to sell embedded MySQL servers to our commercial customers.
> There is nothing strange with this and many open source companies does
> the same thing.
>
> If NuSphere really would have thought that we are doing the wrong
> thing here they would have launced Nusphere.org for this, but instead
> they decided to violate our tradmark rights by launcing mysql.org.
>
> When it comes to NuSphere we have never required them to sign over the
> Gemini code to MySQL AB, as this is not something that is in the core
> MySQL server.  It was also NuSphere's who decided that they didn't
> want to push the Gemini code into MySQL 3.23, which we had previously
> agreed upon.
>
> Mike also conveniently forgets in his email that it's the people
> behind MySQL AB that are the creators of the MySQL code and is
> driving the development of the server parts of the MySQL code.
>
> You can find more about this issue at:
>
> http://www.mysql.com/news/article-75.html
>
> We are constantly updating the above FAQ with new facts, to clarify
> our position in this issue.
>
> Regards,
> Monty
>
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