What a bad article, unclear contents and based on only one source - which by the way wants to sell his services.<p>Going to the Oracle Java site the menu says:<p><pre><code> Java SE
Java EE
Java ME
Java SE Support
Java SE Advanced & Suite
Java Embedded
Java DB
Web Tier
Java Card
Java TV
</code></pre>
IANAL The article seems to be about "Java SE Advanced & Suite" including JRockit VM and other advanced tools.<p>The license on the Java SE download page<p><a href="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index-jsp-138363.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/inde...</a><p>here<p><a href="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/terms/license/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/terms/license/...</a><p>does not include the words<p><pre><code> intelligent systems
general purpose computing
</code></pre>
so it's unclear of what download TheRegister is talking about.<p>[Edit] After downloading the Windows JDK the installer says "The Java Mission Control ... is now available as a part of the JDK". There is an app "Java Mission Control" after installation. There is no click through EULA during installation. There is also no linked license in the app which I could find.<p>Is the term in the click-through EULA of the installer?
Oracle will become the new SCO :)<p>That said, the article is a bit fuzzy.<p>For example, if you want to use Flight Recorder you have to explicitly enable commercial features UnlockCommercialFeatures.<p>This is however free for non-production use. That is "designing, developing and testing"<p><a href="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/terms/license/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/terms/license/...</a><p>> A. COMMERCIAL FEATURES. You may not use the Commercial Features for running Programs, Java applets or applications in your internal business operations or for any commercial or production purpose, or for any purpose other than as set forth in Sections B, C, D and E of these Supplemental Terms. If You want to use the Commercial Features for any purpose other than as permitted in this Agreement, You must obtain a separate license from Oracle.<p>> B. SOFTWARE INTERNAL USE FOR DEVELOPMENT LICENSE GRANT. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and restrictions and exceptions set forth in the README File incorporated herein by reference, including, but not limited to the Java Technology Restrictions of these Supplemental Terms, Oracle grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited license without fees to reproduce internally and use internally the Software complete and unmodified for the purpose of designing, developing, and testing your Programs.
Bryan Cantrill has called Oracle the North Star of Rage - whenever you are confused or lost, you can realign your coordinate system relative to Oracle.<p>I have never had to deal with Oracle, but every time I read something about them in the news, I think of of that nice quote and tend to agree a little more with Mr. Cantrill.<p>On the other hand, I wonder why they do this? This can only hurt Java. I would imagine some companies will take this as a sign and go with .Net where they presumably do not have deal with problems like this one.
The article was very confusing to me. Does it really mean if I get the standard download that might have some licensed components (Flight recorder for example) I'm on the hook even if I don't enable/use those features? The VM even has flag for unlocking commercial feature so that doesn't make sense.<p>Or is it the fact that people are using commercial features thinking that all the free downloaded bits are free, that seems a bit naive for big companies.<p>Also not sure of the distribution angle, if I don't use the msi installer and bundle it in a zip or something does it still require a commercial license? From reading distribution FAQ it seems I can distribute it internally my organization not sure if I can as part of commercial application sold to 3rd party.
Incompetently written article. There are commercial applications you can download for free, with the Oracle JDK, that you need to licence if you plan on using them commercially such as Flight Recorder and Mission Control.
I guess I'd like to know what features are used that activate the licensing conditions? i.e. the specific software or libraries that are part of Java SE Advanced & Suite<p>I have to say that I'm entirely unsurprised though. Oracle has been doing this across their database space for many years: they are kings of the dodgy shakedown. Anyone who decides to go with Oracle on any new venture or as part of any new development are absolutely insane to do so...<p>I'm genuinely waiting (or at least, I <i>was</i> waiting before Trump was voted in as President) for the U.S. Government to litigate against Oracle.
Sadly the article is thin on facts and the article writer confused. Questions coming to mind:<p>1. Is this only Windows? OS X?<p>2. Which download is this in particular?<p>3. What if applications like IntelliJ Idea bring their own JDK?
This entire article is bullshit clickbait designed to appeal to select baseless biases.<p>It offers no meaningful content except for this single sentence:<p>"The Register has learned of one customer in retail with 80,000 PCs which was informed by Oracle it was in breach on Java."<p>There are no further details about why this customer was "targeted" or the nature of their licensing deal with Oracle.<p>I would think after all these years people would know that (a) the Register is a well-known source of fake news/clickbait/misleading headlines (b) Java is open-source (full-stop) and wholly free software and (c) products like "Java SE Advanced Suite" have nothing to do with the Java language or the JDK. (Though I can see why (c) would be confusing, though Sun started this product of calling everything Java XXX (tm).)<p>It's a shame that such an article gets written to feed advertisers useless clicks but it's really disappointing to see it on the hacker news front page.