Hello,
We've gotten some updates regarding the MYSQL licensing and the following email between us and Oracle (MySQL) states that anyone wanting to use the MySQL database in conjunction with Hauptwerk requires a commercial license. If anyone requires this license to be used with Hauptwerk they would need to contact us to arrange for us to purchase this license on their behalf, end users may not purchase the license directly from MySQL as this is in violation of their licensing according to the statement we received.
We understand that some users may not agree to this and that some portions of the MySQL website seem to contradict some of the statements below, however we cannot be held liable for any potential license violations and must to adhere to the latest statements directly from Oracle, thus if you would prefer to continue inquiring about these licensing arrangements we would kindly ask you to take it up directly with MySQL as there is nothing more we are able to do and have aked as clearly as possible about the situation for end users licensing.
Note that there are plenty of other means for creating organ definition files for Hauptwerk and there are also professional services available for this (such as XML editors, please see the links page for various sources), thus if you find that the MySQL license is not a feasible purchase please consider an alternate approach for creating Hauptwerk organ definitions files. As far as I am aware, MDA is the only company to actually use the MySQL database for creating commercial sample sets for Hauptwerk (yes, we have a license), most if not all of the other commercial and free sample sets have been created using alternate means from MySQL, thus MySQL is certainly not a requirement to create the full format of Hauptwerk organ definitions files.
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Hello Martin and Brett:
Please see my comments to your questions below.
Best regards, Denise
Hello Denise (cc. Brett Milan),
Martin Dyde here - Milan Digital Audio's current chief developer, and previous owner/director of Crumhorn Labs Ltd in the U.K.
The commercial (non-GPL) software product we develop is called Hauptwerk (a virtual pipe organ software musical instrument). It was previously developed and licensed (directly to private individual customers) by my then-company (Crumhorn Labs Ltd.), but is now owned, developed and sold by Milan Digital Audio LLC (whom I now work for). We are thus an ISV. We currently embed (only) the MySQL client libraries with our application, and enable those components (being our interface to MySQL) via a secure dongle-based activation process only if a customer (end-user) has purchased a commercial MySQL Classic licence from us.
When the product was first developed in 2005 I spoke to Sinead Lawless from MySQL in the E.U., and we adopted and agreed this approach with Sinead, in order to conform with the MySQL licensing requirements as I understood them from her.
I understand that Brett Milan from Milan Digital Audio spoke to you earlier today, and he asked me to contact you to clarify some points for us and our customers (who raise some of these questions quite frequently on our forum).
Question 1. Your website seems to state clearly that *we* (as an ISV of a non-GPL software product) need to purchase a commercial licence, but it doesn't suggest that our customers each need a commercial licence:
http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/oem/"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 Sun. Purchasing a commercial license means that the GPL does not apply"Could you please confirm, for the benefit of our customers, whether it is definitely (still) a MySQL licensing requirement for each of them wishing to use the MySQL client components included in our (non-GPL) software to have a commercial licence for the MySQL software?
MySQL licensing requires you as an ISV to purchase a commercial license for your customers in order to be legally compliant.
Question 2. If the answer is yes, is it acceptable for our customers to purchase MySQL Classic licences directly from you, and for us to enable access to the MySQL client components we embed only when we have satisfactory proof that the customer has a valid commercial licence (e.g. a copy of the licence certificate).
MySQL licensing requires you as an ISV to purchase a commercial license for your customers in order to be legally compliant.
Although we did previously purchase the licences from you on behalf of the customer, I believed that it would be acceptable for the customer to purchase the licence directly, provided that we had the responsibility to ensure that each customer had a valid commercial licence.
No, to do so would be a license [violation]
Doing so would save us a reasonable amount of admin work, and thus allow the customer to the obtain the necessary licence at a lower cost (since we would not have to pass on additional charges for that admin work).
If you directed your customers to purchase the license directly from MySQL, legally you would be out of compliance.
Question 3. If we changed our application so that it no longer embedded, incorporated, or was distributed with any components created or developed by MySQL, and instead just included a menu function by which a user could invoke a MySQL executable that he/she had installed separately, via the command line, with the appropriate arguments, could you confirm that there would then be no requirement on us or the end-user for the end-user to have a commercial MySQL licence?
If your application uses or requires MySQL, to be legally in license compliance you would have to provide your customer with a commercial license.
You may want to use the services of your patent attorney if you require further clarification.
The Free Software Foundation's GPL FAQ section appears to be very clear that this would be the case, i.e. that the end-user could use the MySQL binaries under the GPL without the GPL needing to apply to our application, because an application is not considered a 'derivative work' if it merely calls a GPL-licensed application via the command line:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-license ... GPLPluginshttp://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-license ... AndPluginshttp://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-license ... ggregationQuestion 4. If necessary, may we quote this email, along with your replies, on our forum/website, so that the licensing situation is absolutely clear for existing and future customers?
(No reply)