Oracle Begins Aggressively Pursuing Java Licensing Fees (theregister.co.uk)

Java SE is free, but Java SE Suite and various flavors of Java SE Advanced are not, and now Oracle "is massively ramping up audits of Java customers it claims are in breach of its licenses," reports the Register. Oracle bought Java with Sun Microsystems in 2010 but only now is its License Management Services division chasing down people for payment, we are told by people familiar with the matter. The database giant is understood to have hired 20 individuals globally this year, whose sole job is the pursuit of businesses in breach of their Java licenses... Huge sums of money are at stake, with customers on the hook for multiple tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Slashdot reader rsilvergun writes, "Oracle had previously sued Google for the use of Java in Android but had lost that case. While that case is being appealed, it remains to be seen if the latest push to monetize Java is a response to that loss or part of a broader strategy on Oracle's part." The Register interviewed the head of an independent license management service who says Oracle's even targeting its own partners now.

But after acquiring Sun in 2010, why did Oracle's License Management Services wait a full six years? "It is believed to have taken that long for LMS to devise audit methodologies and to build a detailed knowledge of customers' Java estates on which to proceed."

Comments

Oracle

[Anonymous Coward]

Larry Ellison is the greediest man on earth and Oracle is his prophet.

Re:Oracle

[Anonymous Coward]

From TFA:

"Java SE Suite, for example, costs $300 per named user with a support bill of $66; there’s a per-processor option of $15,000 with a $3,300 support bill."

It has long been a standard practice with Oracle that they won't even sell you any of their 'Enterprise' products unless you also pay them for 'support' (i.e., their products are shit and after you buy them you have pay extra if you want them to actually work)

A while back, someone analyzed Oracle's financial reports and found that their licensing division, which also handles the support contracts, is responsible for nearly all of Oracle's profits.

Larry must want to buy a new island.

Re: Oracle

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember when I was working in a large bank that went thru a merger of equals many years back.

The other bank is a Sybase shop with "enterprise" licensing based on total staff numbers.

Within a week of the merger, Sybase came knocking claiming that the bank now owes them USD 50 million because total staff numbers have basically more than doubled due to the merger.

To put that in perspective it was a few times larger than the then largest contract which was with Microsoft involving every windows desktop, laptop, windows server, office and other Microsoft stuff.

The CIO was so pissed that he had to spend all his time negotiating a new contract for the first month of the merger instead of actually planning the technology integration.

Naturally he ordered the bank to completely get rid of Sybase within 3 years. After 3 years, Sybase was almost completely gone except for a few trading systems that had major problems and risks moving.

Interestingly most of the DBs was switched to Oracle.

Anyway you screw with your customers enough, they will get rid of you. Even big banks which are dinosaurs when it comes to technology change will not be held ransom.

Overall story: Java is dead.

[Anonymous Coward]

The overall story: Java is dead.

Java will die at a speed limited the by ability of large corporations to move away from using it.

Re:I really hate to defend ORACLE on this

[JaredOfEuropa]

A former client actually had this policy specifically related to Oracle products. No stuff allowed that doesn't run on the free JRE, and no Oracle database products at all, unless it applied to a mission critical piece of software for which there was no viable alternative. The reason: Oracle was too expensive, and they were tired of the audits and the constant nickel & diming. And this was a Fortune 500 company with deep pockets and no fear of (over)spending.

Re:At which point do you need to pay for Java?

[El_Muerte_TDS]

JEE is not proprietary. JEE is a (dead-end) standard for which multiple open source and proprietary implementations exists, both free to use (with paid commercial support) and fully paid.

What the article is about is about Java SE (Standard Edition) Suite and Advanced. This is apparently just Java SE with some additional (non-gratis) tools.

Re: CS curriculum

[SirAudioMan]

I agree with you! However, C/C++ isn't 'sexy' and isn't a buzzword thrown around to attract more students. Learning C/C++ is hard as a first language, though it makes for better programmers. Java looks easy but encourages bad design principals. I wish more CS schools would teach first principals like used to be taught 20-30 years ago.

Re:Dealing with Oracle is risky

[plover]

Once the lawsuits were over and SCO was finally unplugged from the life support lawyers, Darl McBride was leaving the courthouse. Ironically, he slipped on a banana peel on the courthouse steps, and as he fell, he dropped the mantle of 'Litigious Bastards'. Larry was walking by, picked it up, and tried it on. It was still warm and comfy! So he brought it back home, had the tailors in the licensing department do some alterations, and now he's going to put it on as everyday wear, just like Zuckerberg and his hoodies.

"And that, my children, is how the Ghost of Larry Ellison came to haunt the valley. Now, off to bed with you all!"