It's duplicitous and wrong. He sold the product, and now he is actively undermining the product that he sold with the potential of costing Sun/Oracle considerable sums of money to defend against his clearly self-serving claims.
Even if Monty does not succeed, he has the ability to do significant damage to Oracle, Sun, and even industry perceptions of not only the GPL, but of open source in general.
Eh, it wasn't something he intended at the time. It's the fact the database is being sold to its competitor is the issue. If say, McCaffee or Apple bought SUN, I doubt he'd be pulling this stunt.
>He sold the product, and now he is actively undermining the product that he sold with the potential of costing Sun/Oracle considerable sums of money to defend against his clearly self-serving claims.
I'd say, I'd be really hesitant to buy something from the dude again. But then again, I've always thought MySQL AB was a bit of a scam and counseled against linking against MySQL it (and therefore having to buy it). The claims could serve Monty, for sure, but they also serve all the rest of us as well.
>Even if Monty does not succeed, he has the ability to do significant damage to Oracle, Sun, and even industry perceptions of not only the GPL, but of open source in general.
I honestly think that's a fine cost. You see, the reason we're seeing issues is here is one of the most restrictive commonly used licenses (GPL) was used without linking exceptions. That's a retarded thing to do for a library you want to be used. Then as a band-aid, MySQL AB repeatedly allowed de facto linking exceptions, but they are not clearly allowed by the license, more as notices, comments, etc.
The GPL, used in libraries, without linking exceptions, is a HORRIBLE thing for consumers of the library, especially mixed with this wink wink nod nod stuff that MySQL engaged in to allow people to use the free version.
If they wanted exceptions, they should have put them in the license. As it is, they DIDN'T, so they've left a huge swath of products build on this wink wink nod nod understanding in legal limbo.
But yes, the GPL, without exceptions, is a horrible license for infrastructure that you integrate against, like DB servers. I think industry SHOULD be hesitant to use it.
What you need to do is point out WHY the GPL is bad in this case, so industry understands the finer point there, and pushes back to have more libraries add exceptions.
> He sold the product, and now he is actively undermining the product that he sold
Monty's actions leave a bad taste in my mouth too.
I've still signed the petition, because I think Oracle's intentions towards MySQL can only be bad -- they want to neuter it so people have to buy their expensive databases instead. This would not matter so much, except that MySQL is an important part of the technology infrastructure, particularly as part of the LAMP stack.
I wonder when some Sun/Oracle lawyer is going to give him a call and let him know about the legal trouble he could be in for this. I mean, wouldn't this type of behavior have been dealt with in the original MySQL purchase agreement?
He's urging public bodies to block the merger. I doubt they can have an effective agreement that involves anything more than firing him. And he doesn't work there anymore.
Even if Monty does not succeed, he has the ability to do significant damage to Oracle, Sun, and even industry perceptions of not only the GPL, but of open source in general.