Обсуждение: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

Поиск
Список
Период
Сортировка

Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Bruce Momjian
Дата:
Some of you may be following the problems between MySQL AB and Nusphere.
Jan found this nice summary:

    http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/07/12/2142237

The issues involve the MySQL trademark, MySQL websites, the GPL, and
open source community development.

--
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Jan Wieck
Дата:
Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Some of you may be following the problems between MySQL AB and Nusphere.
> Jan found this nice summary:
>
>    http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/07/12/2142237
>
> The issues involve the MySQL trademark, MySQL websites, the GPL, and
> open source community development.

    Actually Dave Mele pointed me to it. But that doesn't matter,
    it's a real good one.


Jan

--

#======================================================================#
# It's easier to get forgiveness for being wrong than for being right. #
# Let's break this rule - forgive me.                                  #
#================================================== JanWieck@Yahoo.com #



_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com


Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Peter Eisentraut
Дата:
Bruce Momjian writes:

> Some of you may be following the problems between MySQL AB and Nusphere.
> Jan found this nice summary:
>
>     http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/07/12/2142237
>
> The issues involve the MySQL trademark, MySQL websites, the GPL, and
> open source community development.

Coming to a court near you:

* PostgreSQL Inc. vs Great Bridge LLC

Violation of trademark by operating a postgresql.com web site

* PostgreSQL Inc. vs Nedscape Communications (Ned Lilly)

Violation of trademark by operating postgres.{com,org,net}

* AOL/Time Warner vs Nedscape Communications

Well, you figure that one out.

--
Peter Eisentraut   peter_e@gmx.net   http://funkturm.homeip.net/~peter


Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Lamar Owen
Дата:
On Friday 13 July 2001 20:01, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> Bruce Momjian writes:
> > The issues involve the MySQL trademark, MySQL websites, the GPL, and
> > open source community development.

> Coming to a court near you:

For some reason I don't see any of these happening.

For one, PostgreSQL isn't a dictatorship like many other open source projects
(MySQL, the Linux Kernel, for two handy examples) are.  It is an oligarchy,
which in this case is not a bad thing, as the oligarchs (the 'Steering
Committee' or 'core') are not all employed by one company.

Contributions to PostgreSQL are accepted without requiring copyright transfer
-- which is also a good thing.

Altogether, this is one of the more open 'Open Source' projects -- and there
is a real community feeling here.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Bruce Momjian
Дата:
> For some reason I don't see any of these happening.
>
> For one, PostgreSQL isn't a dictatorship like many other open source projects
> (MySQL, the Linux Kernel, for two handy examples) are.  It is an oligarchy,
> which in this case is not a bad thing, as the oligarchs (the 'Steering
> Committee' or 'core') are not all employed by one company.
>
> Contributions to PostgreSQL are accepted without requiring copyright transfer
> -- which is also a good thing.
>
> Altogether, this is one of the more open 'Open Source' projects -- and there
> is a real community feeling here.
> --

My guess is that Nusphere wants to create a MySQL community like ours.

Another aspect of the issue that Jan mentioned to me is that MySQL sells
a non-GPL version of MySQL.  This doesn't have the GNU restrictions on
code additions, allowing proprietary binaries to be distributed like our
BSD license.  They can do that because they have full copyright to the
code.  Having an open-source community would prevent this.  I am not
sure if Nusphere is distributing the GNU or non-GNU version of MySQL.
Perhaps that was part of their agreement with MySQL AB.

Overall, very confusing and sad to see.

--
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Thomas Lockhart
Дата:
> Coming to a court near you...

*rolf*

RE: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
"tom"
Дата:
It's open source *slap*, it's NuSphere *slap*, it's open source, *slap*,
it's RedHat Database....


Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Дата:
Bruce Momjian said:

> My guess is that Nusphere wants to create a MySQL community like ours.

Not sure you can "create" something like the PG community. I have to say that this is one of the most informed and
overallpolite (you can tell I'm British can't you :-) online communities I'm involved in. 

The postfix lists have a lot of know-how, but people can be a little grumpy at times (mind you - if PG had to
interoperatewith hundreds of broken systems you'd get a bit fed up at times) 

I'll take this opportunity to send a big "thank you" to all the PG developers not just for the software, but for the
helpthey provide users like me (special mention for Tom who never seems to be off the lists and Justin for organizing
techdocswhich has blossomed over the last few months). 

> Another aspect of the issue that Jan mentioned to me is that MySQL
> sells a non-GPL version of MySQL.  This doesn't have the GNU
> restrictions on code additions, allowing proprietary binaries to be
> distributed like our BSD license.  They can do that because they have
> full copyright to the code.  Having an open-source community would
> prevent this.  I am not sure if Nusphere is distributing the GNU or
> non-GNU version of MySQL.  Perhaps that was part of their agreement
> with MySQL AB.

GPL and "ownership" of a project don't seem to mix without technical supremacy (not superiority - think air superiority
vssupremacy). I can't see IBM's journalling FS for linux having the same problems. 

I seem to remember there being a lot of pressure for MySQL AB to "open source" their DB when they went GPL. Part of
theirthinking might have been practicality - I spent half an hour reading through their licence, but I'm guessing a lot
ofpeople saw they could download it for free and left it at that. 

Maybe they didn't plan out all the consequences though.

> Overall, very confusing and sad to see.

Confusing - well, this sort of stuff is bound to happen as business meets open source - shame the lawyers had to get
involvedthough. 

Sad - definitely. MySQL is a bloody good bit of software (granted, not what you'd call a full RDBMS, but then you don't
alwaysneed a full RDBMS). 

Personally, I'm hoping they sort this out with the minimum of recriminations (I know I'm not switching lists in the
nextfew years no matter how many optional transaction systems MySQL adds). 

- Richard Huxton


Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Bruce Momjian
Дата:
> > Coming to a court near you...
>
> *rolf*

Roll on laughing floor?  :-)

--
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
"Vadim Mikheev"
Дата:
> > > Coming to a court near you...
> >
> > *rolf*
>
> Roll on laughing floor?  :-)

Thanks for translation, Bruce -:)

Peter, is it way you joke or what?

Vadim



Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Thomas Lockhart
Дата:
> > *rolf*
> Roll on laughing floor?  :-)

Yeah, it's hard to type when laughing...

                  - Thomas

Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Jan Wieck
Дата:
Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > > Coming to a court near you...
> >
> > *rolf*
>
> Roll on laughing floor?  :-)

    Roast On Light Flame!


Jan

--

#======================================================================#
# It's easier to get forgiveness for being wrong than for being right. #
# Let's break this rule - forgive me.                                  #
#================================================== JanWieck@Yahoo.com #


_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com


Re: Nusphere/MySQL-AB arguing

От
Vince Vielhaber
Дата:
On Sat, 14 Jul 2001, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> > > Coming to a court near you...
> >
> > *rolf*
>
> Roll on laughing floor?  :-)

He musta been really laughing!  :)

Vince.
--
==========================================================================
Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH    email: vev@michvhf.com    http://www.pop4.net
         56K Nationwide Dialup from $16.00/mo at Pop4 Networking
        Online Campground Directory    http://www.camping-usa.com
       Online Giftshop Superstore    http://www.cloudninegifts.com
==========================================================================