Be careful about VirtualBox Extensions which is non free on commercial environments. Oracle is hunting non compliance and VB provides them with lots of telemetry.
Which is very problematic, of course, without something in writing, and given Oracle's reputation.
(IANAL!)
Also, I don't think Oracle is going to sue over something like this. They really seem not to care. But they could change their mind tomorrow.
Hence, "If you live in a one-party state."
> Also, I don't think Oracle is going to sue over something like this.
Check the other comments in the thread. People are reporting that Oracle is taking IP addresses of people who access the extensions site and if the IP address belongs to a company, they contact the company and threaten to sue.
I am sorry. In Germany, there is no such thing as a "one-party state". :-|
> People are reporting that Oracle is taking IP addresses of people who access the extensions site and if the IP address belongs to a company, they contact the company and threaten to sue.
Thank you for pointing this out. I stand corrected.
Some other possibilities would be the parol evidence rule (verbal exchanges between the contracting parties and their effect on contract interpretation) and possibly laches (no equitable remedy for folks who know about an infringement on their rights and do nothing about it... but money damages isn't an equity claim).
(IAAL but I don't practice in this area, so same grain of salt applies)
Thank you!
From the Restatement Second:
§ 90. Promise Reasonably Inducing Action or Forbearance
(1) A promise which the promisor should reasonably expect to induce action or forbearance on the part of the promisee or a third person and which does induce such action or forbearance is binding if injustice can be avoided only by enforcement of the promise. The remedy granted for breach may be limited as justice requires.
If Oracle says "go ahead and use it" and then sues you for having used it, they lose. If they sue you to stop using it going forward, they win.
A, knowing that B is going to college, promises B that A will give him $ 5,000 on completion of his course. B goes to college, and borrows and [[[spends more than $ 5,000 for college expenses.]]] When he has nearly completed his course, A notifies him of an intention to revoke the promise. A's promise is binding and B is entitled to payment on completion of the course without regard to whether his performance was “bargained for” under § 71.
(detrimental reliance in triple square brackets)
I have a hard time imagining a case being granted summary judgment for the defendant just because Oracle's customer sales rep told him "we don't really care."
In all honesty, the legal issue is more likely to be whether the person on the phone had apparent authority to grant a license. Even if a promissory estoppel theory would work, the person speaking to you would still have to be in some position (or appear to be in some position) to bind Oracle to a promise he/she made.
The fact that they didn't want to take my money forced me to learn KVM and libvirt. That turned out to work better and be way easier to manage remotely.
https://shop.oracle.com/apex/f?p=dstore:product:257141221156...
$39.99, no minimum license count
"Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://m.cdw.com/product/oracle-vm-virtualbox-enterprise-lic... on this server."
Would be nice if the Windows Subsystem for Linux started officially supporting graphical apps or a full VM.
So it's not any of that stuff you can select on the "Custom Setup" screen then...
On an unrelated note, have you considered a third-party X server for windows, like Xming or VcXsrv, for use with your WSL apps?
See: https://i2.wp.com/www.maxtblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/0...
Don't you mean: Be careful to follow the licensing for whatever products you use.
Extension Pack gives things such as USB passthrough.
On the page cited there's no reference to licence/license. Fair enough - it's a release notes page. The only sub-page (using the menu on the left) that contains any reference to licence is the Contributors page, which isn't somewhere most users would head to.
The primary page - https://www.virtualbox.org/ - has one reference to Licence - and that's as part of the assurance that VirtualBox is "an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License".
And if you read that, assumed the best, and went on your way, you'd soon be in breach.
(Yes, you should probably visit https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ despite the above assurance on the front page -- at which point you'd learn about the Extension pack, the PUEL, and other usage constraints.)
Oracle setting a licensing trap they can spring at their whim? Perish the thought!
What kind of functionality do the extensions discussed here cover?
Can you explain how I need to protect myself?
That sounds like exchanging a Toyota for an Edsel.
And Virtual Box has been more reliable than Fusion ever was for me.