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A Closer Look At Oracle's (Legal) Linux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the shiny-new-paint-job-but-serious-engine-problems dept.

A reader wrote to us with Matt Asay's Infoworld piece digging into the legal background of Oracle's indemnification offerings for Linux. Turns out, things are not quite so rosy as PR would make it seem. I know, I know...suprise all around. You can read Oracle's FAQ about it, but some of the tastier bits are that the indemnification covers *just* the kernel, and that whole thing about damage limits? Read what Matt has to say:'The indemnification is not in any way limited to the amount of money a customer has paid Oracle. Apparently, Oracle's legal department missed the memo on this one. If you read Section J of the agreement (Limitation of Liability), you'll note that while Oracle offers unlimited indemnification for consequential damages related to an infringement claim (and that only for the one package, the Linux kernel), it caps all other damages at the amount you pay to Oracle.'

2 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. So you don't by novus+ordo · · Score: 3, Interesting
    This is not indemnity against bugs. This is indemnity against patent issues.

    MS for example takes no responsibility for just about anything that could happen with their products.
    From an IP perspective, seems that they do. And it also seems pretty extensive. From here:
    It is also now providing OEM system builders with protection for the four major forms of disputes commonly associated with software, which are patent, copyright, trade secret, and trademark.
    Apparently this is nothing new in the arena. Companies use shady patent laws to create 'protection' rackets providing insurance. I guess this is to protect from patent trolls by pooling a lot of patents in one lot. Most companies cross-license patents instead of litigation making an even bigger pool(see IBM). Ironic considering what patents were designed to do, don't you think?
    --
    "You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
  2. Look what Oracle did to Apache by bobs666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Last Week I was trying to install a mod into Oracle's 10g web server.
    running apxs was hope less. The version of perl that Oracle shipped
    included libraries that did not exist. How good is it that "use strict"
    would not load, And after switching that perl , oracles apxs wanted
    to load *.o files that Oracle did not ship. In effect Oracle's version
    of Apache will only work with software shipped by Oracle. And
    the perl software and libraries shipped by Oracle are useless.
    I have to ask my self why Oracle shipped them in the first place.

    When they do that to a Linux distro I expect a computer that can only
    run Oracle software. How useless will that be?