Re: How best to get Oracle to divulge "proprietary information"

Quoting Tim Gorman <tim_at_evdbt.com>:

> I'm sure that Oracle Legal goes ape on a regular basis on having *any*
> bug text exposed on MetaLink. They don't give a darn about the
> advantages to customers trying to diagnose problems -- they are
> concerned only with the liabilities involved and the resulting potential
> financial exposure, and that exposure is considerable. Think about it.

I've thought about it and I still can't see the problem. It all depends on what is written on the bug text or how the whole thing is organised so others can check if there is a bug in a specific area.

Confidentiality of bugs is not an argument to sustain inability to access that information. I couln't care less for example who the customer is: that info could be blocked from public eyes, while the rest of the text or a summary at least is available. Plenty of ways to work around that problem. Oracle's unwillingness in finding a solution to let folks check bugs cannot be explained just by confidentiality issues.

> be in violation of federal law on that. It's bad enough I just said
> that on an open forum, and it is purely hypothetical and speculative,
> but what if it is true?

I'd love to see the first lawsuit on this break the Oracle usage agreement: that's what it's there for.

>
> Think about that, and just be grateful that *any* of the bug texts are
> exposed. Personally, I work each day with the expectation that they
> will disappear altogether.

Yeah, but bugs won't disappear, no matter how much we might wish them gone. Much better to tackle the problem in a fashion that avoids everyone else hiting the same bug. That is an exposure as well, this time directly to Oracle: if I spring a bug that Oracle knew about and didn't let me know after I asked, I've got every right to hit back at Oracle for lost time...

-- 
Cheers
Nuno Souto
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