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Oracle customers and MySQL users speak out
,----[ Quote ]
| Behind closed doors, over Thursday and
| Friday, the European Commission has been
| holding a hearing on the proposed
| acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle.
| The Wall Street Journal reports that
| several Oracle customers, including the
| Spanish bank BBVA, Vodafone UK, the
| National Health Service and the Oracle
| user group, spoke in support of the
| acquisition. The hearing had been preceded
| by an initiative by Oracle to mobilise
| customers to speak out on the Commission's
| objections to the takeover.
`----
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Oracle-customers-and-MySQL-users-speak-out-884416.html
The European Commission and Oracle-Sun
,----[ Quote ]
| I spent last Thursday and Friday in
| Brussels, attending the European
| Commissionâs Oral Hearing in the
| competition investigation of the
| acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle.
| The proceedings at the Oral Hearing were
| confidential; I cannot write about the
| presentations made there by others. I can,
| however, summarize the three points I made
| during my brief presentation on Friday; my
| previous written submission to the
| commission is already available. I want to
| explain what I said and where I think we
| stand now that the Oral Hearing is over.
|
| [...]
|
| If the âremedyâ chosen is to permit the
| merger unconditionally, the likeliest
| outcome is the one most favorable to
| competition. For its own business reasons,
| Oracle will heavily invest in MySQLâs
| future. In due course, Oracle should
| upgrade the license of MySQL to GPLv3, and
| should accept and integrate third-party
| patches under that license. This will
| provide safety from any future patent
| aggression by any of the communityâs
| members against the program. By
| diversifying its copyright ownership,
| MySQL will become a pure GPL commons. The
| companies that currently sell MySQL in
| proprietary combinations can continue to
| use and upgrade their products with their
| own maintenance and enhancements, if they
| donât want to come into the GPL community.
| Oracle will continue to have exactly the
| same business reasons to support and lead
| the MySQL community, and the same reasons
| to be apprehensive for their position
| should they be poor stewards of the
| communityâs value. And everyone else can
| invest in MySQL with the knowledge that
| they will always have access to the value
| of everyone elseâs investments as well as
| their own. The modularity and flexibility
| of MySQLâs architecture will maximize the
| extent of the value everyone can realize
| from the commons. By selling support for
| the worldâs most installed database,
| Oracle can project itself everywhere that
| Microsoft SQL Server might want to go, and
| can drive SQL Server into competition with
| a price-zero GPLâd community product,
| which experience as well as theory shows
| is a game Microsoft canât win.
|
| So the GPL ensures robust and beneficial
| competition in the global software
| industry. Once again.
`----
http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/blog/cases/oracle-sun/ec-hearing-and-after.html
MySQL Needs Your Help, Now!
,----[ Quote ]
| Second, the idea that Oracle should not
| acquire MySQL without limitations or
| conditions has been championed by such
| luminaries as Richard Stallman. While Eben
| Moglen wrote a missive on behalf of
| Oracle, his idea that any fork using GPL
| code has the exact same business
| opportunities Oracle has is, plainly,
| absurd. It shows a deep misunderstanding
| of how MySQLâs dual licensing has worked
| to build a viable business from Free
| Software. In short, Stallman âgets it,â
| Moglen does not.
`----
http://blogs.gnome.org/mneptok/2009/12/13/mysql-needs-your-help-now/
Oracle concessions on Sun merger get EC thumbs up
,----[ Quote ]
| Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun
| Microsystems looks set to win regulatory
| approval by the European Commission.
|
| The companies' latest promises to
| safeguard competition in the market for
| database software, make the Commission
| optimistic that the case will have a
| satisfactory outcome, it said today.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/it-business/supplier-relations/news/index.cfm?newsid=17995
Oracle-Sun merger gains favor in Europe
,----[ Quote ]
| The Commission, Europe's top antitrust
| regulator, hosted a two-day hearing at the
| end of last week, giving Oracle the chance
| to defend its planned deal with Sun. Since
| then, officials in the Commission's
| competition division have been engaged in
| discussions with Oracle over the weekend
| about how to allow the deal to go ahead
| without harming Sun's open source
| database, MySQL.
`----
http://www.infoworld.com/t/database-management-systems/oracle-sun-merger-gains-favor-in-europe-122
Oracle makes commitments on MySQL - Update
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| Oracle has publicly committed to enhance
| MySQL under the GPL, not force third
| parties to GPL their storage engines and
| increase spending on MySQL development.
| The promises were part of ten commitments
| in a press statement which Oracle says is
| the result of "constructive discussions
| with the European Commission". This is a
| reference to the hearings which took place
| on Thursday and Friday at the Commission,
| which is deciding on whether to allow
| Oracle to acquire Sun Microsystems,
| current owner of MySQL. It is believed
| that the Commission may make a decision
| today (Monday the 14th) or within the next
| two weeks as a result of the hearings.
`----
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Oracle-makes-commitments-on-MySQL-Update-884532.html
Open Source, MySQL, and trademarks
,----[ Quote ]
| Greg Stein (Apache developer and all-
| around nice guy) made an off-hand comment
| about open source trademarks in an
| article(How to Screw Your (Open Source
| Software) Customers). He was talking about
| how many users of MySQL have actually
| using a purchased proprietary licensed
| copy of the software, and not the open
| source licensed copy. MySQL's business
| model uses dual licensing: the GPL, and
| for the folks whom its strictures are
| unacceptable, a standard proprietary
| license. I agree with his point in
| general: that that's a great way to
| confuse your customers into thinking that
| they're using open source software.
`----
http://opensource.org/node/496
Recent:
EU Regulators to Further Consider Oracle-Sun Acquisition
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Union's Competition
| Commissioner is optimistic that European
| Commission will reach "a satisfactory
| outcome" and ultimately approve Oracle's
| acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Reuters
| reported Wednesday. Neelie Kroes made the
| comments in anticipation of a two-day
| hearing on the matter, which is slated to
| begin Thursday.
`----
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/bentley/eu-regulators-to-further-consider-oracle-sun-acquisition/?cs=38044
Microsoft to sing at EC Oracle hearing
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft will testify to the European
| Commission later this week in the ongoing
| debate on whether the Eurocrats will bless
| Oracle's Sun-acquisition plans.
|
| A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet that
| Redmond "can confirm participation at the
| hearing and that the company has previously
| responded to inquiry from the Commission
| about the deal." The hearing will be held
| this Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
|
| Exactly what Microsoft will tell the
| Commission, however, is far from clear. As
| ZDNet notes, The Wall Street Journal reports
| that both Microsoft and SAP "have already
| told antitrust regulators they oppose the
| merger."
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/09/blue_destiny_suit_against_google_and_microsoft/
Microsoft to testify at Oracle/Sun European Commission hearing
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=4735
Oracle/Sun Merger Opponents To Speak At EU Hearing - Sources
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091208-710542.html
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