Company overview: IBPhoenix
IBPhoenix employs 6 people, grossed $50k its first year, and has nearly doubled revenue each year since. Beach formed InterBase Software to commercialize the existing and mature code base that Borland had taken open source after several years of closed source development. Borland continues to sell InterBase as a closed source product. InterBase is a relatively small company but it is profitable, it has a solid international presence, and it is growing rapidly.
The InterBase / Firebird database project has a colorful history. The initial InterBase product was started in 1984 by Jim Starkey, a former database architect for DEC. IBPhoenix does business as InterBase Software Ltd. and was founded in 2000 by Paul Beach, its president and managing director.
IBPhoenix licensing
The InterBase database product was sold as a closed source product by three companies before Borland took it open source. When Borland subsequently cancelled the open source project, two of the three managers formed the existing InterBase software company to maintain the open source product. The InterBase project is now named Firebird after the mythical phoenix that is re-born anew from the ashes of its funeral pyre. But the new open source project is not without serious legal entanglements.
IBPhoenix uses an open and unrestricted license for the InterBase product. The core InterBase source code is owned and licensed by Borland under the terms of its InterBase Public License (IPL). Borland's IPL license is similar to the GPL in that any code developed by a commercial interest must be made available to the public at no cost. IBPhoenix complies with the IPL by making all of its source code open without any restriction.
Because of this unique ownership situation IBPhoenix does not have the option of offering the InterBase database under a commercial license. It can only sell support, contracting, documentation, and add-on products.
