Campaigners object to Oracle buying MySQL

MORE OBJECTIONS to Oracle's purchase of Sun have been voiced, calling for the EU and other competition authorities to investigate the acquisition further.

Concerns have arisen that the deal could give Oracle too much control over the database market as it would also own Sun's MySQL.

In a statement and on his blog yesterday, MySQL's creator Michael 'Monty' Widenius demanded that Oracle commit to sell off MySQL in order to resolve concerns.

Florian Mueller, an EU strategist and former MySQL shareholder in partnership with Widenius, also warned that "letting Oracle have MySQL is worse than putting the fox in charge of the henhouse."

Software freedom activist Richard Stallman and the non-profits Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and Open Rights Group (ORG) have issued a strongly worded letter to EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes. In it they demanded that Oracle not be allowed to acquire MySQL.

The letter, which was published online, talks about MySQL having developed over time "greater functionality, dependability and improved... performance". It also worries that the legal possibility for a new free and open source software project to integrate existing program code is not a viable option to ensure competition in the marketplace, contrary to what defenders of the proposed takeover claim.

The EU has already said that it will examine very carefully the effects on competition in Europe if the world's leading proprietary database company takes over the world's leading open source database company.

According to a statement in September by the EU Commission, it has opened an in-depth investigation into the planned acquisition under the EU Merger Regulation. It has 90 working days or until January 19 to present a report. µ