Additional Software and Their Licensing

There has been some discussion about doing various things with the Multiverse platform including various forms of distribution. There really is complete freedom for how you use Multiverse, but the same may not be true for some of the 3rd party tools and software that accompany Multiverse. Each of them will have their own licensing requirements. While I believe all the additional components are "open source", with some exceptions with Speedtree. It is important to understand what each of their nuances are. Most of it boils down to, "what is your intention and what will you be doing with it". If you intend to make some dvds for you and your buddies or even a group or team of people to work and play with the system, then there probably is really no problem since no one out in the bigger world will be concerned. However, if the intent is to create an awesome game and sell and distribute the platform to millions of people over dvd or the internet, then I would highly suggest a good and thorough understanding of all the nuanced licensing quirks that you will encounter.

My purpose in any of these conversations is not to limit anyone. On the contrary, I want the entire Multiverse community to grow and have great freedom. We just want to ensure you don't shoot yourself in the foot. I'm not a legal counsel but encourage, at least, a bit of research into these topics so you can stand firm when someone or some organization comes at you.

Make it Great
Make it Awesome
Shane

Review these sections and come to your conclusions.

http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/oem/

http://www.mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/foss-exception/

Is there an option to ustilise a different database engine like SQLite maybe?

We would have to look into using SqlLite. The connecting piece is the jdbc .jar file that connects with MySql. Providing support for another database would require a different connector file, and review of the database classes in the server code to provide capability for the new jdbc.

You can use MySql as much as you want.. the question comes in when you "distribute" it . From what I've read it sounds like you need a special agreement to "distribute" the actual database engine. I may be wrong of course, and would encourage others who have read Oracle's MySql licensing to weigh in.

Open source means many different things. Every license is a bit different. This is one reason why I am so excited about Multiverse because it was released under the MIT License, the most free and liberal license available. The question comes in with the 3rd party components that Multiverse uses.

I've not looked at Sql Lite's license could you post a link ?

Well... you already posted a link in your comment.. I guess I should have seen that.

"Public Domain" is good, even better than MIT License because there isn't even the requirement to include the license text in the source code.

I don't know how powerful or scalable sql lite is I have never used it. Do you have experience with it ?

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I don't know how powerful or scalable sql lite is I have never used it. Do you have experience with it ?

It's a single user flat file database.

I'm sure there are many others out there of a similar ilk, I used SQLite as an example, albeit it may not be 100% suitable, I was searching for the answer regarding being able to utilise different databases in princliple.

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I was searching for the answer regarding being able to utilise different databases in princliple.

I've tried to shy away from databases period, not just mySQL, and only because of the added complexities of software chains.

But then again, I've never dabbled in the MMO creation world before *L*

If you guys are worried about MySQL license agreement then might I suggest MariaDB that is a binary drop in for MYSQL.

well that might be a good option, to have a choice of database engines.....

I'd personally be very much interested in having Postgres as an option. It may or may not be easy to add support for that -- I couldn't say since I don't know what the Java DB connectors are like.