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(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The most popular open source database, MySQL, may be faced with the crippling effect of profit motives, according to helpmysql.org (www.helpmysql.org), a petition backed by Monty Program Ab (askmonty.org), founded by Michael "Monty" Widenius, the creator of MySQL.
Sun Microsystems (www.sun.com), which acquired MySQL in 2008, has since agreed to be bought by "closed source" database market leader Oracle (www.oracle.com) for approximately $7.4 billion. Widenius and more than 15,000 others, including some of the original core MySQL developers, contend that this gives Oracle as much control over an open source project as money can buy. In comparison, a competitor could not buy even a tenth as much influence of most open source projects like Linux or Apache.
"MySQL's success has always depended on the company behind it that develops, sells and promotes it," Widenius wrote on the helpmysql site. "That company (initially MySQL AB, then Sun) has always owned the important intellectual property rights (IPRs), most notably the trademark, copyright and (so far only for defensive purposes) patents. It has used the IPRs to produce income and has reinvested a large part of those revenues in development, getting not only bigger but also better with time."
Widenius continues, "If those IPRs fall into the hands of MySQL's primary competitor, then MySQL immediately ceases to be an alternative to Oracle's own high-priced products. So far, customers had the choice to use MySQL in new projects instead of Oracle's products. Some large companies even migrated (switched) from Oracle to MySQL for existing software solutions. And every one could credibly threaten Oracle's salespeople with using MySQL unless a major discount was granted. If Oracle owns MySQL, it will only laugh when customers try this. Getting rid of this problem is easily worth one billion dollars a year to Oracle, if not more."
Widenius, however, is not without his critics. Python Software Foundation chairman Steve Holden notes in a blog entry that early on, MySQL featured a dual-licensing model allowing clients to purchase supported products from his company, MySQL AB, or to download the open source components themselves. He is also expected to have made a tidy profit from MySQL's sale to Sun two years ago.
"He now apparently perceives a threat to the MySQL 'brand' because Oracle will have no vested interest in ensuring the vigorous development of the MySQL software to compete with its high-margin brand," Holden wrote. "The question that I am left with is: why, having sold the brand (and since MySQL was open source licensed under version 2 of the GPL, the brand was the main intellectual property transferred along with the support business) does Monty imagine he has any right to control what happens to it?"
The software is still protected under the General Public License, which is intended to guarantee the freedom to share and change all versions of a program, so a fork is perfectly practical -- Monty's new company, Monty Program Ab, has even been working on a branch called Maria. "So all we are talking about is a name, and one which Monty willingly sold," Holden concludes.
Regardless, the European Commission has been probing Oracle?s proposed acquisition of Sun. Anti-trust authorities in the European Union will examine the petition, which according to a report from the Register, may have a bearing on a final legal deadline for a Sun Microsystems acquisition decision set for January 27, 2010.
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