Re: [Matt Asay Tells The Truth] Stallman: GPL doesn't guarantee software freedom

[Tim Smith]

In article <87oco0rjli.fsf@lola.goethe.zz>, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> 
wrote:
> > Dak, dak, dak. Stallman told the European Commission that 
> >
> > "the lack of a more flexible license for MySQL will present considerable
> > barriers to a new forked development path for MySQL"
> >
> > http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/ec_letter_mysql_oct19.pdf
> >
> > Read it again, silly dak:
> >
> > THE LACK OF A MORE FLEXIBLE LICENSE FOR MYSQL WILL PRESENT CONSIDERABLE
> > BARRIERS TO A NEW FORKED DEVELOPMENT PATH FOR MYSQL.
> 
> Uh, you conveniently forgot to mention that this is about MySQL being
> licensed GPLv2 _only_ (not as common, GPLv2 or later).  Since GPLv2 is
> being phased out in the marketplace, it is obviously a concern.

Read it again. It says that the "others can fork" argument fails for 
multiple reasons. The first one discussed is that the revenue to fund 
MySQL development comes from commercial license sales, which a forked 
version would not have, since only Oracle will be able to sell 
commercial licenses.

The one you mention, incompatibility with GPLv3, is the second reason 
discussed.

-- 
--Tim Smith