Oracle Says New HP CEO Stole Technology

Source code theft... right. Tech journalists need to stop referring to source code as the "secret ingredient" or what have you. What could possibly be in the code? A faster algorithm than hundreds of PhDs have discovered? Or a novel approach to something (which of course would be covered by patents)? Maybe Oracle has discovered a new system call in windows that speeds up their file seek time, but for some reason isn't documented by Microsoft.

The whole notion of stealing code being worth anything is laughable. What do you do if you have stolen code and you need to extend it? Or if you need to fix bugs in it? If your engineers are any good, it'll take more time for them to figure out how the stolen stuff works than to build a comparable version.

Re: Oracle Says New HP CEO Stole Technology

#5

Post by unexpected » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 5:32 PM UTC

This is a classic technique: Oracle is trying to distract from HP's lawsuit against Oracle by discussing a different issue to divert attention.

Man, Oracle likes to play rough.

Re: Oracle Says New HP CEO Stole Technology

#6

Post by kujawa » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 5:48 PM UTC

I really don't think I've ever seen a company that doesn't give a shit about its public reputation as much as Oracle. Maybe Blackwater.

"We don't have to care, we're the database vendor."

Re: Oracle Says New HP CEO Stole Technology

#7

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:20 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Oracle Says New HP CEO Stole Technology

#8

Post by spinchange » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:44 PM UTC

unexpected wrote: post #5

This is a classic technique: Oracle is trying to distract from HP's lawsuit against Oracle by discussing a different issue to divert attention. Man, Oracle likes to play rough.

HP settled their lawsuit with Oracle prior to hiring this new CEO.

Re: Oracle Says New HP CEO Stole Technology

#9

Post by semipermeable » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:49 PM UTC

irrelative wrote: post #4

Source code theft... right. Tech journalists need to stop referring to source code as the "secret ingredient" or what have you. What could possibly be in the code? A faster algorithm than hundreds of PhDs have discovered? Or a novel approach to something (which of course would be covered by patents)? Maybe Oracle has discovered a new system call in windows that speeds up their file seek time, but for some reason isn'…

Who says its source code that was stolen? "Intellectual Property" covers a very wide range.

It's easy for Oracle to stand up, roll out the long list of their patents, call "They're infringing!", and then the burden is on SAP to show they were not.

I'm sure that some of SAP's products have similar (or near identical) UIs and APIs to Oracle's copyrighted works. Whether the similarity is intended, who knows...

Re: Oracle Says New HP CEO Stole Technology

#10

Post by spinchange » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 7:22 PM UTC

This piece doesn't explain or detail the circumstances of the suit whatsoever. SAP has already admitted fault. They acquired a company called TomorrowNow that was scraping it's clients' Oracle servers to service parts of their systems that it wasn't licensed or authorized to work on. What is being fought over now is damages.

What's new to the story is the public accusation that Apotheker was directly responsible. (He was involved with the acquisition as an executive and had become CEO by the time the suit was filed)

So, if the HP board didn't see this coming, they simply didn't vet Apotheker well enough or are still underestimating Ellison. Probably both.