Re: license

I am not surprised. That sounds like a perfectly valid interpretation. And it is perfectly valid with respect to the "based" database software. With limited exceptions for disaster recovery testing, you do require a license to install Oracle software, even if you don't (that is, "claim not to") use it. After all, the only way you can really "prove" you don't use software is by not installing it to begin with. :-)

I've only been through a license audit once myself. It was surprisingly "lax"; for example, nobody even probed my network for the presence of "unexpected" Oracle listeners. Of course, it was a voluntary audit, so I would expect it to be relatively friendly and that is exactly what it was.

Really, the best policy to follow is this:

1. If you need it, license it.
2. If you don't need it (or haven't licensed it) don't install it.
3. If don't need it and it is installed by "default", remove it promptly.
4. When in doubt, be safe. It is usually easier to later install something you left out than to get licenses for something you should not have installed to begin with.

Laws and contracts are weird. Very weird. Enough so that nothing is impossible. But I'm not aware of anybody getting in trouble over software they never installed!

:-)

On 9/13/07, Chris Dunscombe <chris_at_thedunscombes.f2s.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I was as at a site some years ago where we had a similar situation and had
> Oracle conduct a licensing audit and Oracle said you can not install
> Oracle
> software that you don't have license for even if you don't use it.
>
> HTH.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris
>
>
> ...

-- 
Cheers,
-- Mark Brinsmead
   Senior DBA,
   The Pythian Group
   http://www.pythian.com/blogs

--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l