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Hello Christian,

Thanks for your question!

On 05.08.03 at 15:00 +0200, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> Hello MaxDB team of MySQL AB
>
> In your posting on sapdb.general today you wrote:
>
> > 4. Licensing and the availability of old versions
> >
> > MaxDB will follow the MySQL dual licensing policy,
> > which in short is "if you're free, we're free -- if you're
> > commercial, we're commercial".
>
> As I understand it, this means:
> - If I am a private user and want to store information
>   about my poststamp collection in a MaxDB instance,
>   I won't have to pay anything to MySQL AB.
> - If I am a programmer that has written a poststamp
>   collection management software and I sell it for $20,
>   I will have to pay something to MySQL AB.

Correct.

> But what if I am a programmer working for company X
> and writing a tailormade software only for them that
> makes use of MaxDB, but is not for sale?
> Does company X have to pay for the use of MaxDB?

As long as Company X doesn't distribute it, Company X is free to use MaxDB
with the program written by you, as a programmer employed by Company X,
under the GPL. No payment.

Of course, Company X is also *welcome* to buy a commercial license with
traditional commercial terms, such as for Oracle. Company X will then get
the warranties that go with commercial licenses, but as long as Company X
doesn't distribute the software working with MaxDB, it doesn't violate the
GPL.

If you work independently with Company X as your customer, for which you
create a tailored program, you are probably distributing at least one copy
of MaxDB server to Company X. In this case, you need to buy a MaxDB
license (or are in charge of making Company X buy a MaxDB license), the
cost of which will probably be a small fraction of the total invoice you
send to Company X.

When in doubt, buy a license. They're not expensive, and it's fair to
contribute.

> How much will the price be, calculated on which basis?

We have not yet determined pricing and will post that information, once
we've done so. A MySQL Server license costs 440 dollars per server; expect
the MaxDB pricing to be more than that, but *far* closer to MySQL than to
Oracle pricing.

> Does this depend on whether company X makes
> publically available the source code of the application
> that uses MaxDB or not?

If company X also publishes the stamp collection software under the GPL,
freely downloadable and with source code just as MaxDB and MySQL, then
company X is free to distribute MaxDB's GPL version. Short version: in
that case, the price tag is zero.

> Thank you for providing me with this important
> information

No problem! Hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction. Feel free
to share the answer with the list, if you wish.

Kaj Arn�

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