SAP Admits to 'Inappropriate' Downloading of Oracle Code

netbuzz writes "SAP's CEO Henning Kagermann uses the undoubtedly lawyered term 'inappropriate download' to describe the company's questionable actions. Henning blames a rogue business unit, but there can be no mistaking the fact that Oracle caught SAP with its hand in the IP jar on this one. The legal proceedings that will follow should prove interesting. 'The admission hurts SAP's reputation in the battle with Larry Ellison's Oracle in the $56 billion market for software that manages tasks such as payroll. The rivalry between SAP and Oracle escalated when Oracle filed its March 22 lawsuit claiming SAP workers hacked into a Web site and stole software codes on a grand scale.'"

Comments

Sound familiar?

[EveryNickIsTaken]

I did not have inappropriate downloads with that source code!

Codes plural?

[Random BedHead Ed]

and stole software codes on a grand scale

They stoles codes? Oh noes!

Not Source Code

[Anonymous Coward]

There was no source code on the website!
It was Technical Support documents and patches that SAP was downloading. The only "theft" here is that SAP did not have support contracts to download the patches and documents.

Re:Can I get a consensus opinion?

[bobcat7677]

Oh for pete's sake! The article writer obviously had no clue what they were talking about. No "Code" or "codes" were "stolen" or otherwise questionably acquired by SAP. Some guys in a support center used logins that weren't theirs (but they were given permission to use) to gain access to software patches and support documents that Oracle was too stingy to give them access to in the first place. They were just trying to do their job and help out customers. At worst it could be considered trespassing...but "stealing code"??? Thats really stretching the definitions of both the term "code" and the term "stealing".

Re:Can I get a consensus opinion?

[kevin_conaway]

So what you're saying is, if I break into your house and write down the combination for your safe, I haven't stolen the combination? I think the popular use of the word "theft" would cover such a case. I've stolen the secrecy, which is the value in a secret combination.

I don't follow you. Can you try again with a car analogy?

Re:Can I get a consensus opinion?

[Red Flayer]

SAP & Oracle both provide support for Oracle systems. So, it goes a little deeper than you would suggest, since the patches etc were then further distributed. Furthermore, the code in question went beyond the scope of the support being provided to the client.

The issue here is that SAP used underhanded (and illegal, likely) tactics to derive an advantage over a direct competitor in the support space -- they "stole" trade secrets.

Sure, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but remember that Oracle paid developers to write and test that code -- and SAP got an easy hand up in building similar patches / support mechanisms for what they address.