Oracle isn't making an attestation about performance that the benchmark addresses, the benchmark aims to make statements about Oracle for some other reason, and that's important: Rights to free-speech generally end when they cause harm, and bearing full costs in the defense of false benchmarks is certainly harm.
Look at it this way: The clause aims to prevent purchases (entering into agreement with Oracle) under false pretenses. Oracle sells software to solve business problems, not you-need-a-paper-that-makes-Oracle-look-bad problems, and I think vendors are wise to protect themselves from that.
On the other hand, if you actually bought Oracle to solve a problem, and it didn't do that, you're still free to make those benchmarks and sue the shit out of Oracle with them, and this agreement can't by itself prevent the benchmarks from reaching the public record at that point.
> Is this only limited to marketing claims where you post it on your company's website?
If your company makes X and your company website contains a benchmark saying Oracle is slower than X, you're not just making a statement that you observed Oracle was slower than X, you're also making an attestation that the benchmark is a fair representation of both Oracle and X. And judge and jury are going to be wondering if it's as fair as you say, or if it's unfair as Oracle says.
Now, if you're a university and you don't make X, you might be able to argue that even if it's unfair, it was done in good-faith, and judge and jury may believe that, but Oracle will ask, if you truly believed X was fair, why didn't you get our feedback before publishing? and you'd better have a good answer to that.
On the other hand, if you choose to be anonymous, you may be able to avoid the judge and jury, but the community has to wonder who you are, whether you are motivated by a relationship to a company or product that competes with Oracle, or an impatient researcher who can't meet the standard of professional publishing. The community will wonder, but they have lots of other things to wonder about too, so they probably will not wonder for very long. So what's the point? Techdudes already know what they think of Oracle, and nobody who writes code talking or Oracle thinks that Oracle was chosen for its benchmarks, so who is this anonymous benchmark for?
And here we can see Oracle lawyers in their natural habitat, spewing bullshit rhetoric to protect them against normal usage of their proprietary software.
The big deal is that it's slanderous.
Oracle isn't making an attestation about performance that the benchmark addresses, the benchmark aims to make statements about Oracle for some other reason, and that's important: Rights to free-speech generally end when they cause harm, and bearing full costs in the defense of false benchmarks is certainly harm.
Look at it this way: The clause aims to prevent purchases (entering into agreement with Oracle) under false pretenses. Oracle sells software to solve business problems, not you-need-a-paper-that-makes-Oracle-look-bad problems, and I think vendors are wise to protect themselves from that.
On the other hand, if you actually bought Oracle to solve a problem, and it didn't do that, you're still free to make those benchmarks and sue the shit out of Oracle with them, and this agreement can't by itself prevent the benchmarks from reaching the public record at that point.
> Is this only limited to marketing claims where you post it on your company's website?
If your company makes X and your company website contains a benchmark saying Oracle is slower than X, you're not just making a statement that you observed Oracle was slower than X, you're also making an attestation that the benchmark is a fair representation of both Oracle and X. And judge and jury are going to be wondering if it's as fair as you say, or if it's unfair as Oracle says.
Now, if you're a university and you don't make X, you might be able to argue that even if it's unfair, it was done in good-faith, and judge and jury may believe that, but Oracle will ask, if you truly believed X was fair, why didn't you get our feedback before publishing? and you'd better have a good answer to that.
On the other hand, if you choose to be anonymous, you may be able to avoid the judge and jury, but the community has to wonder who you are, whether you are motivated by a relationship to a company or product that competes with Oracle, or an impatient researcher who can't meet the standard of professional publishing. The community will wonder, but they have lots of other things to wonder about too, so they probably will not wonder for very long. So what's the point? Techdudes already know what they think of Oracle, and nobody who writes code talking or Oracle thinks that Oracle was chosen for its benchmarks, so who is this anonymous benchmark for?