Re: http://www.hjrdba.com/

Not sure that any confusion will be cleared up, since I am still a bit confused myself, but I don't think it does any harm to state the facts as I know them to be.

I have not been told why the site had to come down. Legal liability through mistakes I might make was one subject mentioned. Possible advantage to Oracle University competitors was another. Disparagement of Oracle, the Corporation, was another. At various times, 1, 2 or 3 subjects were mentioned.

So the why is still unknown, even to me.

Given whatever concerns there were, however, the mechanism used to achieve resolution was simply to enforce the Proprietary Information Agreement I'd signed which said (on close inspection) that anything I write related to Oracle matters whilst employed by Oracle belongs to Oracle. By asserting ownership, Oracle Corp was able to insist on take-down. Strangely, Usenet posts were specifically excluded, provided I don't disparage the Corporation in anything I post.

(I wouldn't mind so much, but I told them the site was there 7 months ago, asking for any concerns they had to be brought to my attention pronto!).

The only other fact I know is that someone, whose only condition was total anonymity, rang HR to inform them of the existence of the site and/or to complain about its contents, from which all ensued.

That notification was given shortly after someone on this group emailed me privately concerning legal disclaimers I ought to be making, which email itself arrived after a bit of a bun-fight on this group. Coincidence? Probably. Possibly. I don't know. Whoever it was, I trust they're happy now.

Regards
HJR "Nuno Souto" <nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam> wrote in message news:3cd4889f$0$15474$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au...
> In article <uk7qj1yn0.fsf_at_rcn.com>, you said (and I quote):
> >
> > > There is not even a point in saying that Oracle's education income
> > > would suffer from sites like his.
> >
> > Can somebody who knows restate what the issue was?
>
> the closure of hjrdba.
>
>
> > From the
> > conversations, it seemed that Oracle was worried that somebody might act
> > on incorrect information in Howard's site and then Oracle would could
> > get sued. Therefore, they forced Howard to shut his site down.
>
>
> Yes, and some of us didn't believe that. For many reasons which were
> explained. As for the real reasons, only Oracle and hjr really know
> them. Don't expect either to confirm or deny this, it just won't happen.
> At least not in this media. Usenet is just not appropriate for official
> statements of any kind.
>
> > Some seem to think it is about ownership, and now I read that Oracle was
> > worried that Howard was cutting into their profits.
> >
>
> no, you read what is above and I re-quote:
>
> > > There is not even a point in saying that Oracle's education income
> > > would suffer from sites like his.
>
> that is most definitely not the same as what you said. So let's not
> start a fork(). ;-)
>
>
> --
> Cheers
> Nuno Souto
> nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam
Received on Sat May 04 2002 - 22:40:28 CDT