One more question related to:
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.
OK. Let's suppose the following situation:
We have our commercial product which uses
as database-store SAP DB (and now MaxDB) engine.
We sell it to our customer, but using Application Service Provider model,
which means we don't distribute SAP DB to our customers, we only
distribute our client's part of sofware or give them acces to
our Web Application. Database is still installed
on our side. Moreover, let's suppose for a moment that the client
software does not use any client interfaces like ODBC, JDBC etc - it
receives data only from middle-tier components which are also
installed on our server.
In this situation - do we have to buy a license from MySQL??
Please, put some light on this use-case.
Good Day All,
First, let me clarify that I am not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice.
The simple answer for all cases is this:
If you distribute a derived work that includes a GPL licensed product, then the derived work must also be GPL licensed. In our case, you also have the option to purchase a commercial license for MySQL products from MySQL.
The difficult parts are defining what distribution and derivation are.
Unfortunately, there are no fixed legal definitions that apply to all countries as to what either of these terms are. In the USA, for example, different regions have different processes for determining if two combined pieces of software form a derived work.
In this case, I would suspect that the intent of your middleware is what would matter most in a court case. If the middleware appears to mostly be in place to circumvent licensing restrictions, then it (I believe) would not circumvent the license. If the middleware is an abstraction layer that simply allows for convenient access to a variety of different data sources, then the license might be circumvented.
Again, I cannot emphasize enough that I am not qualified to give advice here - especially since I am not familiar with even the broadest generalities of Polish law.
However, I can try to recommend a few different courses of action:
0. Use the GPL license for your software. Under the terms of the GPL, you cannot charge for a license of the software and you must distribute your source code. However, you can charge for service contracts, warranties, etc. For example, Montavista (http://mvista.com/) sells value added versions of GPL licensed software for very significant fees. Other companies, such as ourselves and Sleepycat, use a dual-licensing model - which is also a very viable business model. (Additionally, there should be additional flexibility with regards to open source and free software licensing available to our users by the end of August - more details when they are available.)
1. Purchase a license. If the licensing fees are not appropriate for your software - say that you sell a shareware product for 75 Euros - then please contact us to work out alternate licensing arrangements.
2. Use an Open Source database that is not licensed under a copyleft license - such as FreBird.
3. Contract the services of a lawyer who is an expert in software for your region. She can help you determine whether or not you are in compliance. I understand that this is difficult for independent developers or small ISVs. An excellent lawyer in this area is Dan Ravicher - Dan is very ethical and approachable lawyer who is an expert in matters of GPL compliance. See http://www.pbwt.com/Attorney/index-bio.asp?bio_id=387 for a professional overview and http://slashdot.org/interviews/01/06/05/122240.shtml for an example of his work with the community. (Note: Mr. Ravicher provides pro bono legal services for the Free Software Foundation. I am an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)
4. Use a proprietary product that forces your client to purchase a license.
My simple solution is this: If you use software, then contribute back to the people who produce the software. If you make money, share money. If you use it in the terms of the community, then work with the community and help other users and/or the developers.
I hope that this help you!
Yours Truly, Zak Greant MySQL AB Community Advocate
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