Judge tells Oracle and SAP to sort it out

Website snooping case

US Judge Joseph Spero has told Oracle to tell SAP exactly how much it is seeking in damages if it is proved that an SAP subsidiary wrongly downloaded material from Oracle's website.

Oracle has accused SAP subsidiary, TomorrowNow, of illegally accessing Oracle copyright material. It has previously said it wanted at least $1bn in damages.

Spero has told Oracle to give SAP a definitive figure by February 13. SAP can then has five days to make a counter offer. The two sides have been ordered to attend a settlement conference 23 February 2009.

TomorrowNow was authorised to download material from Oracle's website on behalf of its customers - it used its customers passwords and account details. But SAP has already admitted that "some inappropriate downloads of fixes and support documents occurred at TomorrowNow", although it insists none of this material was ever passed to SAP itself.

SAP accuses Oracle of extending the case beyond what is allowed by US law.

TomorrowNow, a third party support firm for Oracle and other firms, is due to be shut on 31 October. The order document is available here (pdf). ®