Oracle assaults SAP in spying row

Oracle announced Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against archrival SAP, alleging the software giant hacked into Oracle's customer support centre and downloaded copies of its proprietary software code.

The lawsuit, filed in the US Federal District Court for Northern California, names SAP and its wholly owned subsidiary TomorrowNow as defendants. Among its claims, the lawsuit (PDF) alleges SAP and TomorrowNow engaged in computer fraud and abuse, computer data access and fraud and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.

SAP will not comment until it has had a chance to review the lawsuit, a spokesman said.

Oracle says that in late November it noticed an unusually heavy volume of download activity on Oracle's password-protected customer support and maintenance site for its PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customers.

Upon a review of the Customer Connection site, Oracle alleges that it found more than 10,000 illicit downloads in which customers with expired, or soon-to-expire, support and maintenance contracts had accessed the support and maintenance site.

Oracle claims that one common thread among all of the customers with allegedly misappropriated customer IDs is that they were about to become, or had recently become, an SAP TomorrowNow customer.

The lawsuit alleges: "This systematic theft of Oracle's software and support materials did not originate from any actual customer location. Rather, the access originated from an internet protocol (IP) address in Bryan, Texas, an SAP America branch office location and home of its wholly owned subsidiary SAP TN."

Oracle is asking the court to issue a preliminary restraining order against SAP to limit access to its customer support site, as well as an order that would require the return of the alleged illicit customer support and maintenance documents.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com