Clarifying the MySQL Licensing Policy Documents Pt. II

[Zak Greant]

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Greetings All,

Sorry for the long delay in following up!

First, I have resigned from my position as MySQL AB Community Advocate 
for personal reasons.

If you have concerns regarding licensing and community issues that you 
wish to directly engage MySQL in, you should write to either 
community at mysql.com or license-feedback at mysql.com.

Also, rather than create a separate request tracker for the licensing 
issues, our webmaster has (smartly) added a category in the standard 
MySQL bug tracker (http://bugs.mysql.com/).


So, let us recap where we left off in these discussions with a slightly 
modified version of the notes from my prior message on this issue:

As a way to cooperatively work to address some of the licensing 
concerns held by members of the MySQL community and the broader Free 
Software/Open Source community, we are initiating a community review of 
our licensing policy documents.

This means that we are soliciting feedback about issues in the policy 
documents that people find inaccurate or unclear. From this feedback we 
will work to improve the policy documents.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that we will address or accept all 
of the issues raised or suggestions made. The licensing is both complex 
and is the cornerstone of our business. Past experience shows that we 
must work carefully, incrementally and with community involvement in 
this area. As with development of the FLOSS exception though, I hope 
that we can reach a compromise that is satisfactory for almost 
everyone.

If you wish to participate, the process for doing so is simple.

Review some or all of the following documents:
  * http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/
  * http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/commercial-license.html
  * http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/opensource-license.html
  * http://www.mysql.com/products/licensing/faq.html

When you encounter an issue that you find confusing or inaccurate, 
please file a bug report in the MySQL bug tracking system at 
http://bugs.mysql.com/. Please check to see if the bug has already been 
reported - if so, consider commenting on the existing bug. If creating 
a new bug, please make sure to set the category of the bug to 
Licensing.

Additionally, it would be optimal if you could send a note to the MySQL 
community list on the issue - forwarding the message provided by the 
bug tracking system should be an easy way to do this.

I would like the discussion to take place on the MySQL community list, 
as it is easier to keep track of the issues in a single, low-traffic 
setting. I prefer not to Cc the MySQL General list beyond this initial 
email, so as to avoid cluttering an already busy mailing list.

As for the policy documents, MySQL CEO Mårten Mickos made a small set 
of alterations to the docs that he noted at 
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=118195&cid=9987564


Thanks to everyone for their input and effort here! It has been good 
working with you!

Cheers!
- -- 
Zak Greant

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