Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

SAP Agrees To Pay Oracle $306 Million In Corporate Theft Case

Posted by Unknown on from the also-swear-fealty-to-larry-ellison dept.

angry tapir writes "SAP has agreed to pay Oracle US$306 million in connection with the corporate-theft case that Oracle filed against it and a former SAP subsidiary in 2007, according to a filing made Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The long-running legal dispute centers on illegal downloads of Oracle software and support materials by SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow, which offered lower-cost support services for Oracle software. SAP admitted liability for actions taken by TomorrowNow workers, and a jury awarded Oracle US$1.3 billion in damages in November 2010." The $1.3 billion fine was overturned shortly after, causing more months of litigation.

29 comments

  1. such a thing has never been done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The long-running legal dispute centers on illegal downloads of Oracle software and support materials by SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow, which offered lower-cost support services for Oracle software.

    RHEL/OEL, the irony is lovely.

    1. Re:such a thing has never been done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RHEL is OSS. Oracle (applications, DB, etc.) is not. Hardly a fitting comparison.

  2. Good for both of them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am happy that this litigation came to an end without the trials ad-naseum.

    1. Re:Good for both of them by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Why? I'd rather see more trials, because this would funnel tons of money out of SAP's and Oracle's corporate coffers and into the pockets of lawyers. Not that I care much for lawyers, but as horrible and despicable as they are, they're still better than Oracle and SAP. And anything that would lessen the power of these two software giants is a good thing in my book.

  3. Re:Choking the Chiken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thinkin of them old women you're pullin your pud.

    Pullin your pud.

  4. Wrong headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    SAP Agrees To Pay Oracle $306 Million In Corporate Copying Case

    There fixed that for you. This is Slashdot, where everybody knows that COPYING is NOT stealing.

    1. Re:Wrong headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ever been to a flea market, and you see a guy selling piles of DVDs he burned on his computer?

      In this case, that guy was a major enterprise software vendor and he was charging Fortune 500 companies millions for the privilege. Possibly the stupidest copyright infringement cases of all time. WTF were they thinking?

      But in the end, you are correct, and slashdot will still defend this.

    2. Re:Wrong headline by pegasustonans · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ever been to a flea market, and you see a guy selling piles of DVDs he burned on his computer?

      In this case, that guy was a major enterprise software vendor and he was charging Fortune 500 companies millions for the privilege. Possibly the stupidest copyright infringement cases of all time. WTF were they thinking?

      But in the end, you are correct, and slashdot will still defend this.

      I won't defend an asshat for trying to build a business off copyright infringement, but I sure as hell won't equivocate copyright infringement with stealing either.

      I've had laptops stolen from me, and I've had people copy my homework without my permission. I'd never mistake these two things as similar.

      --
      And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
    3. Re:Wrong headline by Hognoxious · · Score: 1, Funny

      I've had laptops stolen from me, and I've had people copy my homework without my permission. I'd never mistake these two things as similar.

      One of those is a self-punishing offense. Sort of like bigamy.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re:Wrong headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope a gay nigger steals your ass cherry.

      Says the gay nigger lusting after the AC's ass cherry.

    5. Re:Wrong headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You fucking pedant, yes, it's theft, get over it.

    6. Re:Wrong headline by kestasjk · · Score: 1

      I've had laptops stolen from me, and I've had people copy my homework without my permission. I'd never mistake these two things as similar.

      • They're both unpleasant for the victim
      • They're both illegal (assuming the homework is copyright to make a better analogy)
      • They both give the perpetrator something for no work which another had to work for (which disincentives working for things)
      • They both leave the victim with less value (the value lost from the laptop, and the value that is presumably lost in your homework if more people have the same homework)

      Theft is defined (by Google define:) as "the action or crime of stealing", where stealing is defined as "Take (another person's property) without permission" or "Dishonestly pass off (another person's ideas) as one's own", so I don't really see why the word "theft" would irk you so much.

      That having been said even if it was the wrong word; so what? Does this somehow affect your judgement on whether SAP's subsidiary was morally right, or is this just nitpicking over a word?

      --
      // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
  5. Big Island here I come... by mislam · · Score: 0

    sez uncle Larry...

    1. Re:Big Island here I come... by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      sez uncle Larry...

      Aren't they just going to have to turn around and give it to Google?

  6. Re:Happy Friday from the Golden Girls! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's Saturday, knothead.

  7. 5 years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gonorrhea versus Cockroaches, and it's lawyers that come out on top.

  8. Anyone posting under me by stigamet · · Score: 1

    ...is stealing my creative content.

  9. I didn't know DeVry offered JD courses by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    Damages. Fine. Not the same thing.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  10. What this really means... by erp_consultant · · Score: 4, Informative

    TomorrowNow was guilty of downloading copy written materials from Oracle's corporate website without permission and got caught. It was always a very much arms length relationship with SAP. Back when PeopleSoft was an independent company it was one of the leaders in the ERP market, along with Oracle and SAP. When PeopleSoft got swallowed up by Oracle (and Siebel not long after) SAP saw an opportunity to woo PeopleSoft customers away from Oracle. So they bought up TomorrowNow, which at the time was supplying third party support for PeopleSoft customers, in the hope that TN could bring some customers SAP's way. But SAP more or less left TN alone to do their business and was unaware of the wrongdoing that was going on. Now that Oracle has won this case they have their sights on Rimini Street, another third party support provider. What these companies do is provide support for enterprise software products at basically 1/2 the price that Oracle charges. Typical support prices are 17% of the purchase price yearly. So if you dropped a million on an ERP system (not at all uncommon) you could be looking at 170K per year in support costs. A lot of customers feel that is an outrageous amount so they go shopping for alternatives. Oracle wants to end third party support full stop because it's a major cash cow for them and they will use the courts to do it. There is already a pending case against Rimini Street and I suspect that Oracle's strategy will be to sue them out of existence. Personally I'm pulling for Rimini on this one. I think it's good that customers have alternatives. Well, that and Larry is an asshole.

    1. Re:What this really means... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Although it's possible that some of Oracle's work was copy written, perhaps by a copywriter, this case was about copyright and the materials were copyrighted

    2. Re:What this really means... by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      My understanding is that TN's defense was that they were downloading material from Oracle's website on behalf of their (TN's) client. If the customer were an Oracle customer then it's all well and good for that customer to log on to Oracle's support site and download whatever they want. It's part of the agreement you have with them. But in this case the support was being provided by TN. So what TN was alleged to have done was log in as the customer and download copy written materials from Oracle's web site to support the customer. That's a no no. It was a pretty open and shut case. SAP didn't do much to dispute the theft but did fight the amount awarded initially. Looks like they were successful in getting a Billion knocked off it so they should be happy about that. SAP moved pretty quickly to disavow itself from TN by initially putting someone in place to watch over the CEO and then, once it was clear there was wrongdoing, they ousted him and dissolved TN altogether. Personally I think that the Rimini St. case will be more interesting because Rimini is not charged with stealing anything like TN was. Oracle is challenging the validity of third party support in general.

  11. ebay to the rescue by lordfoul · · Score: 2

    $306 Million... That's a Lot of LEGOs!

  12. 'agrees' by udachny · · Score: 0

    'agrees' is a funny word when it comes to this sort of thing. It's like agreeing to being fucked in the ass, because if you don't, then you get your throat cut.

    --
    MY OTHER COMMENTS
  13. Re:Really... by jd2112 · · Score: 1

    Larry still needs to build his secret lair and buy a Persian cat.

    --
    Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
  14. Re:Really... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    You believe the Ferallon islands are a marine sanctuary? It's been much easier to keep Larry supplied sense the tunnel was completed.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'