
Oracle demands $12K from network biz that doesn't use its software - fauigerzigerk
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/04/oracle_virtualbox_merula/
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majkinetor
History repeats:

[https://github.com/chocolatey-community/chocolatey-
coreteamp...](https://github.com/chocolatey-community/chocolatey-
coreteampackages/issues/1145)

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klingonopera
> _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. Luckily, in my case, only
vanilla was installed. But with VB's nag of new version, the possibility of a
licensing bait-and-switch on a newer version and Oracle having left a bad
taste... I'm uninstalling VB from all PCs except one or two devices as a
precautionary measure.

~~~
matteuan
...also Guest Additions are GPLv2 fortunately

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panpanna
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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panpanna
This is what happens when your legal department is 10 times bigger than your
engineering department.

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znpy
Remember kids: Oracle has no customers, only hostages!

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dade_
It is unfortunate that Oracle can't put this effort into fixing their horrible
contract management system so that I can get Oracle support quotes on time.

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mathattack
All the legacy software firms are grasping for straws like this.

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SteveNuts
What are some other ones?

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snitch182
Gitlab is the most modern i can think of.

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SteveNuts
In what way is gitlab legacy software?

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sebazzz
He must have misread legacy as legendary.

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jopsen
Hmm, selling software by embedded a purchase agreement in the EULA.

That's innovation at Oracle?

Seems like scammers should be ignored. Anyone can send you a bill, doesn't
mean you should pay it.

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blackhaz
Dear Oracle,

I am ready to pay the bill. Please reply with your bank account details.

EULA:

[ Lots of boring text ] By replying to this e-mail you irrevocably agree to a
$50,000 processing fee. [ Lots of other text ]

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mangosherbet
For anyone that's curious, it seems you can check whether or not you have the
Extension Pack installed with `VBoxManage list extpacks` in the CLI. I get the
output "Extension Packs: 0". Not sure if that's the 'right' way to check.

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repolfx
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?

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

~~~
repolfx
And so does Oracle. You usually only pay if it's in production. But again - at
some point there needs to be _some_ mechanism to catch people who don't pay.
All other alternatives seem to be more aggressive and worse.

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equalunique
If my employer's C-levels saw this headline, they'd probably just ban Oracle
outright and kill me several-VM lab env.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Never let a crisis go to waste. Use it as an opportunity to get buy in for
time and resources to replace VirtualBox with something more open. If you
write code as part of the initiative, and it's not specific to your business,
try to contribute it back to the community.

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toomuchtodo
What are the best alternatives to Virtual Box?

~~~
brutus1213
Yes .. specifically, I use vanilla VB to drive Vagrant. I noticed that libvirt
seems to be an alternative .. does it work well? Any other options?

