BOSTON—-Feb. 27, 2002– The Free Software
Foundation (FSF) issued a press release yesterday inaccurately
stating that NuSphere Corporation, an independent operating company
of Progress Software Corporation, “lost the right to distribute
MySQL software due to a violation of the GNU General Public License
(GPL).” According to Lorne Cooper, president of NuSphere
Corporation, these statements are inaccurate and inappropriate, as
the case has yet to be presented in court.
“The Free Software Foundation had no basis on which to issue
this statement,” said Cooper. “The dispute between NuSphere and
MySQL AB originated from a trademark dispute. The initial court
hearing takes place today in Boston Federal Court. We believe
actions such as this press release by the FSF violate basic ethics
regarding due process of law and can only harm the open source
community by alarming commercial users of open software.”
The FSF contends that NuSphere violated the GPL by simply
linking proprietary software to the MySQL system using a public
API. MySQL AB is interpreting the GPL so broadly that any
commercial software that comes into contact with free software must
also become free, according to Cooper. By that standard, a
commercial email program would violate the GPL if it downloaded
mail from a GPL-compliant mail server, he says. NuSphere regards
this as an extreme interpretation of the GPL and believes that
MySQL AB’s injunction against NuSphere is an inappropriate case by
which to test the GPL in a court of law.
The legal dispute between NuSphere Corporation and MySQL AB,
which is a VC-backed organization that also develops, supports and
markets MySQL, is about trademark rights that NuSphere purchased.
MySQL AB raised GPL issues in its counter-suit.
“Businesses may, in good faith, have disagreements over
interpretation of contracts and in this case all that we seek is to
have MySQL AB honor its contracts,” said Cooper. “MySQL AB,
however, decided to broaden our contractual dispute into a legal
test case for the GPL. We disagree with that decision because there
is no infringement of the GPL, and because this is counter to how
the open source community operates.”
Visit the NuSphere website (www.nusphere.com) to view a letter
that Cooper wrote to customers and the open source community and a
PDF file of the original contract signed with MySQL AB in June
2000.
For more information or comment from Lorne Cooper, please
contact Sarah Johnson or Laura Ackerman at 781-684-0770 or [email protected].
Please note, Cooper will not be available during the hearing, which
runs from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST. More information on NuSphere also
is available at www.nusphere.com.