Re: Oracle buys Innobase

Jan Wieck wrote:
> On 10/8/2005 4:34 AM, Andreas Kretschmer wrote:
>
> > Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> schrieb:
> >> Ultimately, MySQL should drop InnoDB.
> >
> > http://forums.mysql.com/read.php?3,48400,48400#msg-48400
> >
> > InnoDB is GPL. But, i'm also confused.
> >
> > My guess: a fork in the future.
>
> This whole GPL forking thing is still the same as it was before. One can
> only take the last version, released under GPL, and build a GPL-only
> project based on it.
>
> Oracle bought the copyright of InnoDB with the company. So if anything
> goes wrong during their upcoming relicensing talk, MySQL can of course
> fork off a GPL version of InnoDB, but that fork cannot be included in
> their commercial version of MySQL. What value would that fork have for
> them then? Using a pure GPL fork of InnoDB is in conflict with their own
> licensing scheme and I don't think MySQL is in the position to say bye
> to dual licensing.
>
> To have a really good position when talking to Oracle, MySQL will need
> to brush up on the BDB support, and that pretty quick.

What about the patents InnoDB might hold? It would be easier to enforce
a patent based on the fact that they are using code actually developed
by the patent holder.

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