Snowden saga scares Oracle away from spy-flick sponsorship

The ongoing tensions between the government and private sectors over Edward Snowden's document leaks has reportedly pushed Oracle to cancel a high-profile film placement deal. Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, The Financial Times claims that Oracle first made, then sought a way out of, a product-placement deal …

[Mephistro]

Glad to see...

... that even under the oppressing weight of the NSA, there is still plenty of room for comedy.

[amanfromMars 1]

BSI Standard Sub-Prime KiteMark

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, The Financial Times claims that Oracle first made, then sought a way out of, a product-placement deal in the spy thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Sources familiar with such matters would advise one and all that citing unnamed sources, and all variations on that theme/meme, is usually code for a program rooted in BullShit Intelligence.

Nice one, FT. Take a bow.

PS .... Here be a source and resource which seeks to extraordinarily render fact from fiction and/or fiction from fact, depending upon one's needs of course, for they be poles apart in reality and virtual reality, and server completely different masters. ......... http://verificationhandbook.com

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: BSI Standard Sub-Prime KiteMark

Sources familiar with such matters would advise one and all that citing unnamed sources, and all variations on that theme/meme, is usually code for a program rooted in BullShit Intelligence.

I don't think so, the FT has too much to lose without checking a secondary source to corroborate the story. This is simply source protection - without it, the last bit of journalism would die. Thanks for the link, though, interesting book.

[frank ly]

I thought Edward Snowden was the oracle ...

Am I getting confused?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I thought Edward Snowden was the oracle ...

I think you'll find he's 'The One' - have a cookie.

[Scorchio!!]

Re: I thought Edward Snowden was the oracle ...

"I think you'll find he's 'The One' - have a cookie."

He's properly known as Edward Sneowdon

Meaow. All bow to Bob, pra Bob.

[Anonymous Coward]

In other news ...

... unnamed sources familiar with the matter claim that Larry Ellison will be featured as Agent 007 in the next James Bond movie, replacing Daniel Craig.

[dssf]

Damned if HE did, Damned if HE did

So, Oracle got its named scrubbed. It owes the production costs it already underwrote. (This is a contractual matter, as most films won't get a green light for production unless insurance is there to protect from disruption/non-completion/other things).

That the production is by David Ellison means Oracle will likely have to pony up even more money, as it will not want to see another networking/database company's name on-screen. Larry probably won't like it, and Son probably won't want to tick off Dad.

But, investors other than Oracle/Larry will likely have made substantial risky involvements, too, and SOME of them might have tech connections, and might be able to parlay those connections (or, be presented "inducements") to get onscreen some other company's name. If the move/attempt is blocked, production may be halted or disrupted while things get hashed out.

Fortunately, though, names can be digitally inserted. They just need to put green tape or something in the place of the logo so that at the last possible moment, even Oracle can come back an be branded/brandished on screen.

I don't see why Oracle will be worried. Moviegoers are not Oracle's core affective audience. Tecchie will buy what gear they must and what database they feel they must for maximizing ROI and productivity. Maybe the script will be tweaked with dialog to exonerate the high-tech and pin the blame on the NSA. Editing the screenplay would have been a lot cheaper. But, if Oracle's backing out produces 3x the money needed for/of Oracle's involvement, then the movie probably will proceed without much issue.

Just my $0.05

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Damned if HE did, Damned if HE did

" ...as it will not want to see another networking/database company's name on-screen..."

Which other company will take that risk? Even if it is a seasonal paranoia.

[Timmay]

Re: Damned if HE did, Damned if HE did

MariaDB? Monty likes to get his fingers in as many dirty pies as possible, especially if it's a pie Oracle has just used the withdrawal method on

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it more likely that they pulled out when they got a copy of the script?

That's much more likely given the finished product..........

[solo]

Re: Isn't it more likely that they pulled out when they got a copy of the script?

It is not that they pulled out when the crawlers wanted to execute SELECT ***

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe Larry was aware that an obvious sponsorship of a spy film would encourage a number of his highly tech-literate clientele to recall his obsequious praise of the NSA last August:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/13/larry_ellison_on_google_and_nsa/

[Anonymous Coward]

I never saw the point in the Oracle product placements in Iron Man and The Avengers, I mean who in their right minds will believe that stuff?

Tony Stark's Butler: "We searched the Oracle cloud and found this..." {fx embarrassing silence followed by sniggering}