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The Oracle Java Precept

23/2/2023

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New Java pricing model ...
​... new cost.

Oracle have announced (January 2023) a new pricing model for its Oracle Java SE Universal Subscription offering that is based on the number of employees rather than the prior per user or per processor metrics, and that could prove costly to many customers - firstly, lets look at the Employee definition:
Employee for Java SE Universal Subscription: is defined as (i) all of Your full-time, part-time, temporary employees, and (ii) all of the full-time employees, part-time employees and temporary employees of Your agents, contractors, outsourcers, and consultants that support Your internal business operations. The quantity of the licenses required is determined by the number of Employees and not just the actual number of employees that use the Programs. For these Java SE Universal Subscription licenses, the licensed quantity purchased must, at a minimum, be equal to the number of Employees as of the effective date of Your order. Under this Employee metric for Java SE Universal Subscription Programs(s), You may only install and/or run the Java SE Universal Subscription Program(s) on up to 50,000 Processors, If Your use exceeds 50,000 Processors, exclusive of Processors installed and/or running on desktop and laptop computers, You must obtain an additional license from Oracle. 
Key points - Count all employees, not just users, and this includes those outside the organization that support your internal business operations! How many individuals might that definition capture in a large enterprise, if you can indeed identify and track them accurately at all !! Then you're facing a tiered per user monthly subscription cost (that reduces based on higher volumes, phew) that would see a shop of 500 Employees facing $7,500 per month in subs!

So what are my Java options ...

  • Oracle Open JDK is free, but you'll have to upgrade every six months to stay current (including with security patches) - note though, as Open Source there are other JDK options from other vendors that offer further support.
  • Oracle JDK has Long Term Support (LTS), ie. fully supported by Oracle with quarterly updates and a 2 year LTS release cycle, free for development etc, but you'll likely have to pay for use in production (refer below).
So lets look at the licensing currently available for Oracle Java SE releases​:
  • Oracle OpenJDK releases are under the open source GNU General Public License v2, with the Classpath Exception (GPLv2+CPE) (available since Java 9).
  • Oracle JDK 17 (the 'Program') and later is available under the Oracle No-Fee Terms and Conditions License which permits free use inclduing for your own business operations, however, if you distribute software You must not charge Your licensees any fees associated with such distribution or use of the Program, including, without limitation, fees for products that include or are bundled with a copy of the Program or for services that involve the use of the distributed Program.
  • Oracle JDK 11, Oracle JDK Java 8, and Oracle JRE with Java Web Start in Java 8, are available to Oracle Customers via My Oracle Support and also under the OTN License Agreement for Java SE. This OTN license permits personal use, development, testing, prototyping, demonstrating and some other limited uses at no cost.
  • Oracle JDK 7 releases are available on My Oracle Support for Oracle Customers only.

And how do the LTS and non-LTS releases co-exist?

For product releases after Java SE 8, Oracle will designate only certain releases as Long-Term-Support (LTS) releases. Java SE 7, 8, 11 and 17 are LTS releases. Oracle intends to make future LTS releases every two years meaning the next planned LTS release is Java 21 in September 2023. For the purposes of Oracle Premier Support, non-LTS releases are considered a cumulative set of implementation enhancements of the most recent LTS release. Once a new feature release is made available, any previous non-LTS release will be considered superseded. For example, Java SE 9 was a non-LTS release and immediately superseded by Java SE 10 (also non-LTS), Java SE 10 in turn is immediately superseded by Java SE 11. Java SE 11 however is an LTS release, and therefore Oracle Customers will receive Oracle Premier Support and periodic update releases, even though Java SE 12 was released.
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This fundamentally raises some questions and no doubt financial concerns for many, so if you haven't done so already make sure you're across your Java landscape and can quantify not only future costs, but future efforts, and make the right decisions for how you want to continue with your Java developments and solutions.
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Free Open Source Software  + Compliance?

26/11/2021

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The Software Freedom Conservancy sues Vizio, Inc. for alleged violations of the GNU GPL covering software incorporated into certain Vizio smart TVs.

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Companies are often unaware of their obligations when it comes to Open Source licensing with solutions they develop that include distribution of software built on the likes of the GNU General Public Licensing terms, and that can leave them exposed to lawsuits just as it can with commercial software ...
An early and widely publicised example of the impacts of such non-compliance was the 2008 lawsuit initiated by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) against Cisco Systems that alleged several of Cisco's consumer network routers used GPL licensed code. The litigation was settled with Cisco releasing the source code, making a contribution to the FSF, and appointing a compliance officer. Quite the kicker.
In this latest action SFC asserts that all consumers of copyleft code deserve the opportunity to know, access and modify the code on their devices and is seeking the release of the complete, corresponding source (CCS) for all GPL’d components on Vizio TVs. The benefit? Well much as it was with the older analogue hardware TV's that would be repaired by technicians, coders would have the option to repair the software when the supplier potentially stops support for their older models (surely not from 'built-in obsolescence'?) 
And lets not forget the ethics involved given the FOSS history and the principles that underpin it. From its fruition in the 1990s and early 2000s when Linux and other GPL’d software was considered nothing more than experimental. From those curious beginnings grew the community of enthusiastic developers whose software has benefited and furthered the rights and freedoms of individual users, consumers, and developers around the globe. It is a culture worth preserving and that means keeping organisations who benefit from that culture honest.  (SFC refers to this as 'Ethical Technology' meaning technology that serves its users rather than the corporations who profit from it and preserves and promotes the rights of those impacted by it). 
So if you are an organisation using open-source software, and in particular, incorporating it in proprietary commercial products, make sure you understand your compliance obligations with the relevant open source licenses. If you don't, you might soon find that letter arrives requiring you to release all of the IP you've built on top of the most excellent Free and Open Source Software that we all benefit from.
The Software Freedom Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is supported largely by individuals who care about technology and advocates for software that has been designed to be shared (using copyright licensing that allows users to freely use and repair it, and, in particular, forms of software licensing that use the restrictions of copyright to promote sharing called “copyleft”, such as the GPL).
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