Re: Is an Oracle license required for a development environment?
- From: "Mark Brinsmead" <pythianbrinsmead@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Paul Vallee" <paulvallee@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 01:57:45 -0400
Well, I have to agree with this.
The LAST person you want negotiating your contracts is a lawyer!
When it comes to understanding your obligations under a contract, a lawyer
can sometimes come in handy. (Especially when it comes to deciding which
portions of the contract are actually enforceable.)
In any event, the only reason I dragged the subject of lawyers into the
dicsussion is this: the internet is a big place. Very, very big.
Somewhere out there, there is probably at least one person stupid enough to
confuse my comments on the "standard" Oracle license agreement with
meaningful legal advice. (And they would have to be pretty stupid to do
that!)
Paul is definitely right about negotiating with Oracle. Few sites with more
databases than I have in my basement actually pay list prices or sign an
OLSA that is not ammended somehow... (Another reason for my comments about
lawyers -- almost everybody's actual contract terms are "special".)
Are development DBs "free" under the OLSA? Definitely not. But I wouldn't
be surprised to see even Oracle's licensing police turn a blind eye to it --
especially for large customers who are current on their support payments.
;-) In a way, that's just one more form of negotiating. And certainly, I
would not be the least bit surprised to see large sites negotiate free
development/test servers, although I would expect the venerable "unlimited
site license" to be a more popular choice...
For *most* Oracle customers (well those with a million or so dollars to
spend) the OLSA is simply the starting point for the negotiation.
--
Cheers,
-- Mark Brinsmead
Staff DBA,
The Pythian Group
http://www.pythian.com/blogs
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