You can easily access a MySQL database through the Python MySQL module. This module should be mostly compatible with an older interface written by Joe Skinner and others. However, the older version is a) not thread-friendly (database operations could cause all other threads to block), b) written for MySQL 3.21 (does not compile against newer versions without patches), c) apparently not actively maintained. MySQLdb is a completely new module, distributed free of charge under a license derived from the Python license. WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mysql-python