OREANDA-NEWS. October 26, 2015. Following its recent jury trial victory against Rimini Street, Oracle has asked the trial judge in Nevada to issue a permanent injunction against Rimini Street, which would restrain Rimini from continuing its practice of copyright infringement and violations of state laws protecting computer systems. 

The jury reached its verdict on October 13, following a three and a half-week trial, and awarded Oracle \\$50 million in damages against Rimini Street and its CEO Seth Ravin.  The jury’s findings confirmed Oracle’s long-maintained claim that Rimini and Ravin built a business through pervasive and unauthorized downloading and copying of Oracle software and support materials.  The jury unanimously found that:

  • Rimini Street infringed Oracle’s copyrights for every product line at issue in the case: PeopleSoft software and documentation, J.D. Edwards software and documentation, Siebel software and documentation, and Oracle Database software.
  • Rimini Street owes damages for infringing every copyright registration put to the jury, totaling 93 different copyrights.
  • Rimini Street is liable for over \\$14 million in damages for violating both the California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and the Nevada Computer Crimes Law.
  • Seth Ravin personally violated both the California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and the Nevada Computer Crimes Law and is individually liable for over \\$14 million in damages.

Testimony at trial made clear – and the jury’s verdict confirmed – that without copyright infringement and illegal conduct, Rimini Street never would have gotten off the ground and grown its business.  Oracle’s motion filed yesterday requesting a permanent injunction explains that a permanent injunction is warranted to address Rimini’s many years of copyright violations and its attempts to cover up those violations. 

Rimini’s attempts to hide its misconduct from Oracle, customers, investors and the court were the subject of hours of trial testimony.  For example, prior to trial, Rimini denied in court filings that it maintained its own unauthorized library of Oracle Software.  In fact, the court found that Rimini had created and then improperly destroyed the library, and the court sanctioned Rimini for this unlawful destruction of evidence.  Likewise, prior to trial, Rimini and its CEO, repeatedly denied creating updates and fixes in one customer’s software environment and then delivering those updates and fixes to other customers.  Under the court’s rulings, those activities are a violation of Oracle’s copyrights.  On cross-examination at trial, Ravin was forced to admit these violations happened “all the time.” 

While Rimini has been attempting to spin this loss as a small matter involving a purportedly “innocent” misunderstanding between competitors, it has been conspicuously silent about the fact that the jury found that both Rimini and Ravin violated a California statute that bars computer fraud and a Nevada statute that punishes computer crimes.  In doing so, the jury found that Rimini and Ravin engaged in intentional misconduct. 

After it was shown in open court how Ravin and Rimini lied to customers, investors the court, and Oracle regarding its business practices, Rimini Street now claims that it has “ceased using the particular processes that Oracle challenged as infringing.”  Like Rimini’s defenses, which fell apart during the latest trial, such assertions are unproven. Given Rimini's long record of deception, such assertions are not credible. In fact, they are part of the basis of another ongoing lawsuit between the parties in which Oracle is demanding further damages for copyright violations by Rimini Street after 2011.