Can mySQL take it back?

The move by mySQL to withhold its Enterprise Server code from all but paying customers is a political hit, but legally it's in the clear.

Such moves are perfectly legal under GPL Version 2, the license used by mySQL uses. But it's also legal, under the same license, for an Enterprise customer to then make the same source code available, free, to whoever wants it.

As Jeremy Cole notes on his weblog, the main reason to do this is so Linux distros won't ship Enterprise with their LAMP stacks.

Kaj Arno, who heads mySQL community efforts, writes this week that Community users will get four updates per year, while paying Enterprise customers get Monthly Rapid Updates (MRUs) and Quarterly Service Packs (QSPs).They will also get bug fixes first.

The real damage here is political. The split between mySQL Community and Enterprise is 10 months old. Ingres, PostgreSQL, and other open source databases will try to use this to lure away active community members.

As the two builds separate, mySQL will also come under pressure to maintain quality in the community release, and enhance proprietary advantages for enterprise customers. It's a delicate balancing act.

You can also expect open source opponents to imply that the open source business model does not work. I don't agree, because Enterprise is based on that model.

What is happening is that mySQL FOSS and mySQL open source are now different products.

Feel free to disagree.