I have never found a lawyer or Chief legal counsel that is completely happy
with any contract they do not get an opportunity to change, however I have
never had a Chief Legal counsel have any problem with the acceptance of the OTN.
In answer to some of your questions.
"What is the legal definition of software development vs software testing.
Production is legally defined but all the rest is ......"
I think here you are trying to parse the phrase
" purpose of developing, testing, prototyping, and demonstrating Your
application and only as long as Your application has not been used for any data
processing, business, commercial, or production purposes, and not for any other
purpose."
The phrase is tied together and because of all the legal/tax documentation
surrounding development, some explanation can found here
(https://tax.network/cjohnson/capitalize-costs-of-software-development/) and
yes tax law may seem more daunting than a regular legal contract.
I believe you are trying to split hairs from an argument standpoint of testing
for net new development which the first covers versus testing for an
application that is already in production. This agreement just like the tax
laws make it clear that anything related to the production application is
separate, which is covered by the second part of the phrase.
As to:
"Many have issues with the whole dependent on another product stuff. What
happens if 10 years down the road they drop the licensed product but continue
to use the the dependent product unknowingly."
Chief legal counsel would quote the common phrase (and yes I have had one say
it to me)
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" or in this case ignorance of what you are
doing/have done is no excuse if it violates a contract or the law.
An example that I ran into once was the Audix Voicemail server that had an
Oracle 7.3 database under the covers. I only found out about it because the NT
Admin responsible was having some problems and came to me because the error he
received when he looked it up on google pointed to an Oracle database. I helped
him with his problem of course and in later license review when I was trying to
account for all database licenses , I asked about this one and when we pulled
the product legal contract there is wording in the original contract that the
Oracle database could only be used for the AUDIX product. So if you were to
remove AUDIX and just use the Oracle database you would be in violation of the
license, period no excuses.
Both of these
Is a bug fix development of a new program? or Production maintenance?
Is testing of a program that has not reached production, development testing or
production testing?
goes back to the write off software development article, your Chief Legal
counsel or even your finance people will tell you
Bug fix of a new development that cannot under the law be associated as
maintenance of a current program, is net new development not production
maintenance.
If you are testing a program that has not been in production then it is
development testing not maintenance.
You also have to remember the OTN agreement is not necessarily the only
agreement you are working under.
If you have no Oracle licenses at all then this is the only agreement that
applies relative to Oracle SW (along with the agreement you signed for signing
up to OTN) and it is very simple if you are in development life is great, but
the moment you start using the application/Oracle SW for any production use you
need to follow the OTN license and pay for real licenses for development and
production.
If you have even one Oracle license then you are operating in a different world
which I have spoken about in the past that there are many rules in the
contracts that have been signed which expand the definitions and scope of what
you are required to do.
Buried in your Oracle contracts are a variety of legal statements, depending on
the contract which may include
"you must maintain support licensing on all Oracle licensed products you own",
so you are not allowed to remove support on some database licenses that you
will just let that system die off after a time. I had a one client some RAC
licenses that we were not using, but had a future plans to build RAC down the
road in a year or so when we would need to scale out, so the idea was to not
pay support until we actually needed them again. Not allowed.
Special note to everyone, based on the OTN license and what is in most Oracle
contracts, if you decided to test a product like say Golden Gate against an
application that was in production in your company, you technically have to
purchase a license to perform that testing. In order to be on solid ground for
this requirement you should always speak to your Oracle sales rep and your
chief legal counsel. You will get in writing from your Sales Rep that you can
download and use the software for x amount time to perform your tests at no
charge and your Chief legal counsel will normally touch base with you that you
have completed your testing and removed the software. You should never just
take some sales person word for it that everything is fine, download the
software. Always get it in writing. Luckily Oracle had been reasonable in this
area of not going after people who really just tested the software then removed
it or decided to purchase it, however when it comes to a license audit, the
contracts will apply and under contract/OTN agreement you technically owe
Oracle money if the application is in production.
Again any Chief Legal counsel will tell you it is all their in black and white,
if you take the opportunity to read it. I have never found a Chief legal
counsel not willing to talk to you or direct you to one of the lawyers below
them to talk to or to get you a copy of the contract to peruse. They are
normally very happy that you are taking an interest in their work and trying to
protect the company. Gentle reminder as chief legal counsel is normally a
C-Level equivalent, don't abuse that privilege of their time.
Matthew Parker
Chief Technologist
Dimensional DBA
425-891-7934 (cell)
D&B 047931344
CAGE 7J5S7
Dimensional.dba@xxxxxxxxxxx
View Matthew Parker's profile on LinkedIn
www.dimensionaldba.com
-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Dave Morgan
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2016 7:55 AM
To: Oracle-L
Subject: Re: Oracle License
Even lawyers don't understand Oracle licensing.
What is the legal definition of software development vs software testing.
Production is legally defined but all the rest is ......
The whole OTN agreement contradicts itself. I have yet to find a lawyer that
finds the OTN license acceptable.
Many have issues with the whole dependent on another product stuff. What
happens if 10 years down the road they drop the licensed product but continue
to use the the dependent product unknowingly.
Is a bug fix development of a new program? or Production maintenance?
Is testing of a program that has not reached production, development testing or
production testing?
I tell the clients how many sockets I believe they need to be licensed for, and
then I document which license I believe every database and Oracle application I
know about is under.
After that I do lots of arcane and superstitious things, like drinking, that
are absolutely required to regain sanity after attempting to deal with Oracle
licensing complexities
YMMV
Dave
--
Dave Morgan
Senior Consultant, 1001111 Alberta Limited dave.morgan@xxxxxxxxxxx
403 399 2442
--
//www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
--
//www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
