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(mysql.info)Products that use MySQL

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Selling Products that use MySQL
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To determine whether or not you need a MySQL license when selling your
application, you should ask whether the proper functioning of your
application is dependent on the use of MySQL and whether you include
the MySQL server with your product.  There are several cases to
consider:

   * Does your application require MySQL to function properly?

   * If your product requires MySQL, you need a license for any machine
     that runs the `mysqld' server.  For example, if you've designed
     your application around MySQL, then you've really made a
     commercial product that requires the engine, so you need a license.

   * If your application does not require MySQL, you do not need to
     obtain a license.  For example, if using MySQL just adds some new
     optional features to your product (such as adding logging to a
     database if MySQL is used rather than logging to a text file), it
     should fall within normal use, and a license would not be required.

   * In other words, you need a license if you sell a product designed
     specifically for use with MySQL or that requires the MySQL server
     to function at all.  This is true whether or not you provide MySQL
     for your client as part of your product distribution.

   * It also depends on what you're doing for the client.  Do you plan
     to provide your client with detailed instructions on installing
     MySQL with your software?  Then your product may be contingent on
     the use of MySQL; if so, you need to buy a license.  If you are
     simply tying into a database that you expect already to have been
     installed by the time your software is purchased, then you probably
     don't need a license.