FAQ: The Petition

How much time do we have?

This is very urgent but you can still help. If it's ever too late (for a good reason or a bad one), we'll immediately deactivate the petition and add a note on the outcome to every page of this website.

Don't believe any claims that it's over until we've told you so. Those claims could be spread by people who want to sabotage the campaign.

This campaign website was launched on December 28, 2009. The sooner we reach a large number of supporters, the better. One key date is January 4, 2010. On that day (the first working day of the year) we plan to formally present the petition to regulators, other governmental bodies, parliaments and journalists. After that day we will keep gathering support until the very end of the process and it's important to show continued support. We will probably do multiple deliveries of the petition throughout January and possibly February 2010.

Why is this a worldwide campaign?

Oracle needs approval in all major markets worldwide. So we will present the petition in different parts of the world.

Generally, regulators will define the geographic scope of the database market as worldwide. If you just think of MySQL, it obviously makes sense: people can download or receive it from everywhere in the world and use it everywhere in the world. Therefore, your signature supports this cause even in the eyes of a regulator in a different part of the world than yours.

How many signatures do we need to succeed?

There's no particular threshold. This is not the kind of petition where it would be known beforehand that 100,000 signatures will, according to some law, initiate a political process. It's about showing that MySQL users care and want a real solution to make MySQL's future independent (or at least much less dependent) from Oracle.

It's not just about the absolute number but also about how quickly people sign up and whether signatures keep coming in all the time at a high rate. The sooner you sign and make others aware, the better.

What will you do with my data? Can I trust you?

We understand that you place trust in us by supporting this effort and we will prove that we can be trusted.

We have a clear-cut data privacy statement that you can see on the petition page, clarifying that your data will only be used to present the petition to regulators, other governmental agencies, parliaments and journalists from important, reputable news agencies. If we send you information concerning the campaign, you will always have an unsubscribe link available to click on, and in that case you will not receive any further emails from us.

How will you deliver the petition to regulators, parliaments and news agencies? Who may get to see the petition?

Sometimes petitions are delivered as printouts to show an impressive pile of paper. However, for environmental concerns we may elect to do most deliveries in an electronic format. Regulators, parliaments and important, reputable news agencies would receive them with an explicit request for not using the data in any way unrelated to the case. News agencies will have to sign the acceptance of that request and will not be permitted to quote any of the names or other uniquely or narrowly identifying data from the petition unless they receive express written (including email) permission from a signatory to be named in a report.

A regulator working on the case will have to take the petition to the Oracle/Sun case file. There are special rules for access to such a case file. For an example, in the EU Oracle's lawyers would certainly have the right to look at it. That is necessary in order for the petition to have a really strong effect.

We don't request any particularly sensitive information in our petition form and we would also discourage you from saying anything sensitive in the fields for public or private comments if you decide to fill out those fields.

How can I best help you make the petition successful?

Obviously the best first step would be for you to sign it.

In the Help To Promote section you can find further instructions and materials, such as banners to place on a website.

We are certain you will know other professional MySQL users and will find ways to encourage them to sign the petition.

Should I write to the Commission myself now? Or to my country's national antitrust authority or to parliaments such as the European Parliament?

We believe this campaign will generate a very large number of responses and it will certainly be easier for the various institutions to process a complete petition. However, we may very well make calls via the Internet, including by email, if there seems to be a particularly good opportunity to make a difference through direct contact.

If you can speak on behalf of a company with 10 or more employees and MySQL is very critical to your business, or if you can speak on behalf of a company with 100 or more employees that uses MySQL for a significant business purpose, then please do get in contact with your country's antitrust authority and express your concerns over Oracle's plans to acquire MySQL. If you need any help with that, please use the contact form to ask us questions.

Who is driving the petition and what are your motivations?

This petition is driven by Monty Program Ab, which was founded by the creator of MySQL, Michael "Monty" Widenius, and consists of many of the original core MySQL developers.

The short answer is that we want to ensure that MySQL can't be killed by Oracle and we also want to ensure that MySQL is also in the future actively developed under an Open Source license in a way that meets the needs of all market segments.

A more detailed answer can be found in Monty's blog that explains his motivations and intentions.