Category Archives: «Oracle Audits»

Oracle’s latest licensing change for Java is certain to create even more confusion on an already problematic licensing model and give even more ammunition for the Oracle sales and auditing teams to attack Oracle customers. On January 23, 2023, Oracle changed its Jav......

Enterprise-level software solutions often entail complex licensing challenges. Many of the thorniest questions often center on how to license software in virtualized environments, especially if the goal is to use something less than the full processing power of the hosting......

Of the many complex licensing arrangements Oracle offers to its customers, none seem to generate as much confusion and consternation as the Unlimited License Agreement (“ULA”). For companies that have already determined that they are not going to renew their ULAs ......

Some Oracle customers are not aware that by simply installing an Oracle program (even if it is never used), you agree to the terms and conditions of Oracle’s license agreement. During an Oracle Audit or compliance review, the software publisher is looking for violat......

Have you received notice of an impending Oracle license audit? If so, it’s not necessarily time to panic. It’s normal practice for Oracle to audit its customers -- software license audits are a significant revenue source for the company. Many well-meaning compa......

Many larger companies feel an understandable desire to move toward, centralized, enterprise-level software licensing agreements. Such frameworks often have the advantage of allowing licensees to spread their license spends more evenly over the term of the agreement and to ......

Many companies would like to know whether and to what extent their existing Oracle software product licenses entitle them to use that software in a third-party cloud-hosting environment – such as Amazon Web Services’ (AWS’s) Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environment – ......

During a global pandemic, health care organizations may have believed that they could focus solely on providing health-care services to their customary patient-base, along with those affected by COVID-19. Many of those organizations were surprised to learn that they were......

It is common practice for software publishers to incorporate by reference various licensing rules and policies to govern the usage of the publishers’ software products. For example, Microsoft’s volume license agreements (such as MPSAs or Enterprise Agreements) incorp......

If your business receives an inquiry from Oracle requesting that you complete an Oracle Server Worksheet, you should proceed with caution. Answering the question without consulting a licensing expert and carefully evaluating the relevant license agreements can result in ......

Technology departments are continuously looking for ways to reduce costs related to software. Many larger enterprises are considering licensing software products on an enterprise-wide basis. For Oracle products, an unlimited license agreement (“ULA”) approach can be ......

Many software publishers recognize that perpetual licenses should be, true to their name, perpetual, and that unless you violate the terms of the licenses they should remain in effect forever. As the licensee, you may not want to use that Microsoft Office 97 license you ......

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution-delivery model is becoming more and more widespread. Developers of all kinds of software solutions – products covering everything from office productivity, design, accounting, CRM, business intelligence and more – increasingl......

When licensing Oracle products, many businesses fail to understand the licensing requirements for virtual technologies and disaster recovery.  These licensing mistakes can result in significant unbudgeted expenses related to Oracle software licensing. (1) Virtualization ......

Oracle maintains what I consider to be the most aggressive audit program of any major software publisher. Its licensing rules can be extremely difficult to understand, and they frequently are not clearly stated in the applicable license agreements. Moreover, Oracle’s L......

Oracle’s “Technology” software products (such as its WebLogic and Database programs) are very popular products. Unfortunately, as we have explained numerous times here, Oracle’s license agreements and compliance practices entail numerous pitfalls for unwary users......

On July 28, Oracle announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire NetSuite for approximately $9.3 billion. NetSuite was founded in 1998 and is one of the very first, enterprise-level, cloud-services providers, delivering various, hosted enterprise resource planni......

“In hindsight, I should have involved our legal team immediately, since they were requesting information that had nothing to do with Oracle.” Wise words. A recent article published by Business Insider (here) is the latest in a run of recent media attention (more here) ......

For many Oracle products, like Database, the license agreement or ordering documents contain minimum license requirements. Often, quantities of licenses necessary to satisfy the minimum licensing terms varies based on the edition of the license in question. For instance, cus......

Licensing software at the enterprise level is rarely a simple undertaking. Unless your company is big enough to demand custom licensing terms, most businesses will face the prospect of contending with license metrics that may work great for the software publishers, but that ......