Re: Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems - NYTimes.com

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
Date: April 20, 2009 4:24:45 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems -  
NYTimes.com

It *will* be interesting.  Things are complex enough that one cannot  
say it is the "worst" case, but one advantage of most "open source"  
licenses is that the community of developers can "fork" the project  
into a community supported project, no matter what the owner does, and  
of course the owner doesn't hold a copyright on the entire source-code  
body, since many authors did not work for the owner that was sold.

Perhaps we will see a new trademark rise from the ashes of MySql, and  
a newly vigorous development community will be funded by those in the  
community who do not wish to be beholden to Oracle.  Or maybe not...  
after all, old database companies learn new tricks sometimes.

All I can say is that just because MySql is in some sense "owned" by  
Sun, this by no means means the same as Windows being "owned" by  
Microsoft.

Business strategies around MySql by both Oracle and its competitors  
will be entirely different than they would if MySql were a traditional  
"closed proprietary" software product under license.  And even more  
complex will be the "antitrust" issues raised by the sale - a smart  
Oracle would argue that there is no increase in control of the market  
because they don't "own" the product.  And smart antitrust plaintiffs  
could argue that ownership has never been the core of antitrust.  The  
courts will have fun.



David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Stephen Fulton <sf () lists esoteric ca>
> Date: April 20, 2009 10:23:56 AM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems -  
> NYTimes.com
>
> Dave,
>
> For IP if you wish.
>
> One of the Sun's assets is the open-source MySQL database software,  
> which is used by many, many Internet sites.  I am curious, and  
> somewhat concerned, about what Oracle intends to do with that  
> product now, as it does compete directly with Oracle.  There are  
> other options for sites which prefer or can only afford an open- 
> source platform rather than commercial products, but none so widely  
> used as MySQL.  These are uncertain times for a large number of  
> website operators and other users of MySQL.
>
> -- Stephen
>
> David Farber wrote:
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/technology/companies/21sun.html?hp
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