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Oracle demands $12K from network biz that doesn't use its software

theregister.co.uk

11–20 of 26 posts

Re: Oracle demands $12K from network biz that doesn't use its software

#11

> received a bill from Oracle for $12,200 for using the company's proprietary VirtualBox Extension Pack, which provides extra capabilities for the free GPL-licensed VirtualBox hypervisor This still means that vanilla VirtualBox is GPL, and can be (freely) used for businesses, right? EDIT: Looking at the downloads page, apparently so, VB is licensed with GPLv2. The Extensions Pack following that is licensed PUEL. Luck…

...also Guest Additions are GPLv2 fortunately

Re: Oracle demands $12K from network biz that doesn't use its software

#14
Not really sure what alternative people would prefer here.

DRM to ensure it doesn't run at all unless it can contact a license server? Complete with licensing related outages?

Oracle's approach here isn't especially unusual and seems better than video game style DRM. Always run, ping home and let pirates be mopped up asynchronously or (more commonly) businesses that just aren't disciplined about licensing contacted to get proper billing in place.

If you want to sell software users can run themselves, and not just rent via a cloud service, what better approach is there?

Re: Oracle demands $12K from network biz that doesn't use its software

#15
post #14

Not really sure what alternative people would prefer here. DRM to ensure it doesn't run at all unless it can contact a license server? Complete with licensing related outages? Oracle's approach here isn't especially unusual and seems better than video game style DRM. Always run, ping home and let pirates be mopped up asynchronously or (more commonly) businesses that just aren't disciplined about licensing contacted t…

Lots of software provides base software and free trial of premium features with time limit without a paid license.

Re: Oracle demands $12K from network biz that doesn't use its software

#17

> received a bill from Oracle for $12,200 for using the company's proprietary VirtualBox Extension Pack, which provides extra capabilities for the free GPL-licensed VirtualBox hypervisor This still means that vanilla VirtualBox is GPL, and can be (freely) used for businesses, right? EDIT: Looking at the downloads page, apparently so, VB is licensed with GPLv2. The Extensions Pack following that is licensed PUEL. Luck…

...also Guest Additions are GPLv2 fortunately

Major distros should modify their version of VB to not accept Oracles version of the extensions without (1) informing users about the Foss version and (2) forwarding the user to this page first.
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