MySQL’s products were available in their entirety under a dual licensing policy. Any user could
download the product under the GPL and use it without fees or purchase it for a much lower fee
than that of other commercial DBMS. While the product features of both licenses were identical,
three differences applied. Commercial MySQL software:
• could be distributed with non-open source software.
• included a warranty from MySQL AB.
• came with development support.
You can use MySQL free of charge, provided you follow the GPL license. Any derivative work must follow the same license. So then [customers] come back and say, ‘Yes. We like your product, but we’d like to avoid the GPL license.’ So we say, ‘Fine. Give us some money and you will be freed from whatever burdens of the GPL.’ This is a profitable business for us.
download the product under the GPL and use it without fees or purchase it for a much lower fee
than that of other commercial DBMS. While the product features of both licenses were identical,
three differences applied. Commercial MySQL software:
• could be distributed with non-open source software.
• included a warranty from MySQL AB.
• came with development support.
You can use MySQL free of charge, provided you follow the GPL license. Any derivative work must follow the same license. So then [customers] come back and say, ‘Yes. We like your product, but we’d like to avoid the GPL license.’ So we say, ‘Fine. Give us some money and you will be freed from whatever burdens of the GPL.’ This is a profitable business for us.
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