Oracle suit accuses Las Vegas company of ‘massive theft’

By Steve Green

Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010 | 11:31 a.m.

Technology giant Oracle USA Inc. filed a copyright infringement lawsuit Monday against a Las Vegas company it says has been stealing and re-distributing Oracle products on a vast scale.

Redwood City, Calif.-based Oracle filed suit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against Rimini Street Inc. and Seth Ravin, who launched the company in 2005.

Rimini Street says it offers a support program for businesses that enables Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and SAP licensees to remain on their current software release without any required upgrades or migrations through 2020.

"Our third-party support program provides a significant annual savings of more than 50 percent in fees compared to Oracle and SAP annual support,'' Rimini Street says on its Web site.

But Oracle, in its lawsuit, complained of "the massive theft of Oracle's software and related support materials through an illegal business model by defendant Rimini Street and its CEO and president, Seth Ravin.''

"Central to Rimini Street’s business model is the illegal downloading of Oracle’s Software and support materials in a scheme that is vast in scope, consisting of many thousands of software and support materials,'' the suit alleged. "Rimini Street typically logs on to Oracle’s password-protected technical support Web sites using a customer credential, then downloads software and support materials in excess of the customer’s authorization under its license agreement. Sometimes Rimini Street will download hundreds or even thousands of software and support materials at a time, relating to entire families of software (e.g., PeopleSoft, JDE, or Siebel) that the customer does not license and for which it has no use.''

Oracle also complained Rimini Street has damaged its systems with the use of software-searching robots or crawlers -- and that in interviews Ravin has acknowledged the massive downloading alleged in Oracle's lawsuit.

"These intrusions have damaged Oracle’s support services by causing the databases which host the software and support materials to freeze, disrupting their operation and impeding the availability of lawful downloads to Oracle’s other customers,'' the lawsuit charges. "Ravin has admitted that downloads in excess of the customer’s authorization are improper. In an interview he explained that 'It is very common for [a customer] to provide a password and ID for us to get to download upgrades and support. It’s a standard industry practice across every consulting firm. The key is you have to be authorized.'"

But in a statement today, Ravin denied the allegations and said Rimini Street would fight them.

"Enterprise software customers, like in any truly competitive market, deserve the right to have a choice of support options and vendors," Ravin said in the statement. "I believe Oracle’s actions are an attempt to forestall competition and limit market choices for its software licensees. Rimini Street offers valuable support options at more than a 50 percent savings compared to Oracle. Rimini Street’s services are enjoyed by hundreds of clients around the world, including Global and Fortune 500 organizations, many government agencies, and small businesses trying to grow and hire new employees in these difficult economic times. Rimini Street has been a leader in fighting for customer choice and options, and we will continue to do so."