Oracle lawsuit alleges 'gray market conspiracy' over support services
23.02.12
Oracle is alleging that two companies violated its intellectual property as part of a "gray market" conspiracy to provide support for Oracle's Sun Solaris OS and hardware, according to a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The complaint names managed services provider ServiceKey of Norcross, Georgia, as well as DLT Federal Business Systems Corporation, a Wilmington, Delaware, company that provides IT services to government agencies.
ServiceKey and DLT-FBSC "conspired to steal and distribute copyrighted, proprietary Oracle software code, along with the login credentials necessary to download this code from Oracle's password-protected websites," according to the complaint.
Their goal was to "sell support on Oracle hardware to customers with no active support contract with Oracle," it adds.
Under false pretenses as "purported Oracle customers or partners," the companies took "vast quantities" of patches and updates for the Solaris OS as well as other support materials, it adds.
Source: Computerworld