So if you have to buy a commercial license for things the GPL doesn’t permit, what are those? Here are a couple of scenarios I can think of.
The GPL doesn’t require you to GPL-license all the software in your company.The GPL doesn’t require you to GPL-license any software that merely connects to MySQL.
The GPL allows you to modify the MySQL source code in any way you want.The GPL allows you to run a for-profit business on MySQL.If you do not know what Free Software is, you should learn. Note that in this article I will use the word “Free” very carefully, as used by the Free Software Foundation. I am not a lawyer, and you should do your own legal research, but misinterpretation of the GPL is rampant and I think I should try to counteract the misinformation about it if I can. So when are you required to buy a commercial license? It’s very simple: when you want to do something with MySQL that the GPL doesn’t permit. I don’t know how these notions get started, but they do.
People I’ve spoken to wrongly believe that they’re required to purchase a license if they’re going to use MySQL in anything but a not-for-profit business, for example. I’ve recently been hearing a lot of confusion about when you have to buy a commercial license. You can get the source under the GPL version 2, or you can buy a commercial license. When Are You Required to Have a Commercial MySQL License?Īs you may know, MySQL has a dual-licensing model.