back to article Judge agrees damages model in Oracle cloud class-action

A US class-action case claiming Oracle falsely inflated its cloud revenue by threatening customers with audits is set to continue after a federal judge approved the damages model proposed by the plaintiffs. United States District Judge Beth Labson Freeman has certified an "out of pocket" approach to determining damages …

  1. FuzzyTheBear
    WTF?

    Threats a business model ?

    Seems everytime i read something about Oracle it's always about them threatening x , y or z with lawsuits ..

    Why do people want to make business with them ?

    They like lawsuits and audits ? ..

    Gees.

    1. Claptrap314 Silver badge

      Re: Threats a business model ?

      For a long time, they were the goto if you had DB requirements that were beyond what FOSS could provide (at the time). Nowadays, I would assume that the Postgres community sports enough commercial expertise that this no longer matters. But it will take a decade at least for governments to figure that out, let alone to decide to shell out for a complete rewrite of their back ends which are built on their Oracle systems.

    2. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Threats a business model ?

      It works for the Mafia until they get hit with RICO charges. I wonder when some DA will actually look closely at Leisure Suit Larry's minions and their practices.

    3. aerogems Silver badge

      Re: Threats a business model ?

      Never dealt with Oracle personally, but I've been around the IT world for a while, and you hear things.

      Once upon a time, Oracle was kind of the only game in town if you needed a large scale database. Now you have MS SQL, SAP, and can chain together a cluster of inexpensive MySQL/PostgreSQL servers to achieve much the same. However, one thing I have consistently heard over my time in the IT world, is that it is such a PITA to switch away from Oracle most companies just decide it's ultimately cheaper and easier to keep paying Oracle's extortionate prices and dealing with substandard (but familiar) tools.

      Just as a small personal anecdote. In college, my roommate was taking a class on databases. This involved installing a personal copy of the Oracle database on their personal computer. Approximately once a week, for that entire semester, they had to format and reinstall Windows because the Oracle database would cause problems. Kept in touch with them over the years and I've never met anyone who isn't a server admin who's that obsessed with backing everything up and using imaging software. Can't say for certain it's related to their experiences with Oracle, but that would be my guess.

      1. BOFH in Training

        Re: Threats a business model ?

        In that case, best option is never let anything from Oracle in, so you don't have to worry about expensive migrations in the future.

  2. aerogems Silver badge
    Devil

    I can believe it

    El Reg has covered multiple lawsuits from sales bods who were a little too successful at drumming up business and Oracle didn't feel like paying the contractually agreed upon commissions. El Reg also covered a story or two where former employees have alleged that most sales are actually initiated by a threat of an audit. So the idea that Oracle would then decide to record those "sales" in such a way as to seemingly prop up a sagging business unit really is extremely plausible.

    1. Youngone Silver badge

      Re: I can believe it

      I am pretty sure that the vast corporation I work for was threatened with an audit by Oracle and then dared to drop them.

      We have taken them up on that dare, and although it is going to take several years, we are in the process of dropping them worldwide and replacing Oracle with SAP.

      Unfortunately my part of the world was chosen to be the guinea pig and it has not gone well. Lessons have been learned however and we are pressing on.

      I can't imagine how bad Oracle must have been if SAP was the answer, although to be fair at least half our problems stem from employing a less than capable project manager.

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