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Original post by PaulCesar But this is where it will hurt. Everyone that developes say.. a game based server (such as an MMORPG, MUD, etc) that uses open source code, will have to make the source code to that publicly availiable.

Only if they are using versions of this kit which are licenced under the new GPL. Code licenced under the old one will continue to be so forever.

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This causes many.. and i mean MANY problems: 1) With people having access to the server code, they will be able to find vulnerabilities and take advantage of them.

Well, you should't have any :)

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2) Competition will be able to legaly copy your codebase

Right, but the GPL will still apply to them. Plus also, your game data, tools, util programs not covered by the GPL are still entirely private and covered by normal copyright rules.

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3) Fans will be able to make servers, removing any real profit margin from running a subscription based service.

Still not a problem, as they will have to create 100% of their own original content, as your game content will not be covered by GPL.

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EDIT: This will completely demolish the profit margin for creating subscription based software that utilizes any GPL code , as well as some companies that make there money based on services which rely on a server using an GPL based codepath for the basis of the application.

Not necessarily. I'd argue that the real value is being created by

- The act of running the servers themselves
- The game content

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Thankfully, banking institutions have a thing against using OpenSource software, or we could really be in trouble.

In what way would having your bank release the source code to their online banking application cause trouble?

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But the same can not be said about the online gaming industry.

MySQL is not the only open source database.

The one which immediately springs to mind is SQLite, which is licenced under a much less restrictive licence than GPL.

It certainly doesn't prevent you using it in this manner.

Finally, the clincher:

Commercial licences ARE available for MySQL

Mark

I've been asking MySql Inc for a while now, what it takes to get a license. They only reply with "Call us at this number..."

Imo, they should be able to answer questions in that whole "email" thing, ya know...

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Original post by PaulCesar It is on a seperate server though, thankfully, the main thing im worrying about is the same thing as many... the new GPL rule thats supposidly in the works, which would ban it from commercial use on a server aswell. (the new GPL license)

AFAIK, almost all current GPL software is licenced under something like the following:

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This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Which allows you to choose which version of the GPL to apply. Legaly, I don't think they can change from an optional version to a fixed version (the new one) in existing code. Although they can release further modifications under the new license.

While this is an exciting topic (especially given that making money from a server infrastructure was shown as an example of a GPL-compatible business model in the beginning), it belongs in the Business of Game Development forum; not the networking & multiplayer forum. Please re-open the thread there (I'll close it if we get more discussions right here).

For the original poster's question, I have some sample code which shows how to issue a HTTP GET query to some server, and get the data back, in simple C++ code. That might help.

You should worry about forgeries, though -- someone else might want to connect to your server and issue the same type of queries, so think of what to do with authentication.