A federal judge has ruled that IT services provider Rimini Street violated Oracle's copyright for its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
Judge Larry Hicks found that Rimini Street had installed unlicensed copies of Oracle PeopleSoft on its company computers in order to provide software updates and support, according to TechWeekEurope.
Rimini Street argued that Oracle knew about its use of the software. It said that since Oracle even issued backups to the company, it essentially amounted to consent.
The judge dismissed this defence, stating that Rimini Street used obfuscated shipping requests so that it could employ Oracle software without the company's knowledge.
Deja vu
The case follows a similar judgement in 2010, when Oracle won a case against SAP after the latter bought TomorrowNow, which was found to be using unlicensed Oracle software. The case was later overturned and the firms are still arguing over a settlement deal.
TomorrowNow was co-founded by Seth Ravin, CEO of Rimini Street. Oracle claimed that Ravin was repeating history by again using unauthorised copies of its software.
A settlement has yet to be agreed in this latest case, and Rimini Street is expected to appeal.