The US Department of Justice has filed a fresh lawsuit against Oracle, three months after intervening in a whistleblower suit that accuses the software giant of overcharging the government by "tens of millions of dollars." Paul Frascella, formerly senior director of contract services at Oracle, filed the original lawsuit back …

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Friday 30th July 2010 09:21 GMT Anonymous Coward

Epic FAIL for all!

So:

(1) Oracle agrees to a ludicrous contract whereby it is required to give the government any discounts it gives to anyone else. WTF? I'm not a multi-billionaire, but if someone walked in to my shop and said, "Hey, I'll pay $100 for that TV, but if you ever sell that same make and model for under $100, you have to give me the discount," I'd throw them out of my store, sans TV.

Epic FAIL on Oracle for agreeing to such a stupid deal, even if the U.S. Government demands it.

(2) The U.S. Government expected Oracle to honestly keep track of whatever discounts it gave customers. Have you ever worked with major software sales reps? They'll pull numbers out of their bodily orifices to make a sale, and then fudge the contracts later to make it all add up. Oracle was supposed to keep track of all that?

Epic FAIL on the U.S. Government for expecting Oracle to carefully audit their sales discounts.

All that said, a contract is a contract, and so Oracle's likely to owe the U.S. some cash. And if intent is proved, treble damages is reasonable.

I'm just shocked either party is involved in such shenanigans.

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1. Friday 30th July 2010 13:16 GMT DragonLord
  
  Analogy
  
  "(1) Oracle agrees to a ludicrous contract whereby it is required to give the government any discounts it gives to anyone else. WTF? I'm not a multi-billionaire, but if someone walked in to my shop and said, "Hey, I'll pay $100 for that TV, but if you ever sell that same make and model for under $100, you have to give me the discount," I'd throw them out of my store, sans TV."
  
  your analogy would work better if you said I'm going to lease this TV from you for £100/month and if you ever lease that same make and model for less that £100/month I want the same discount.
  
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  1. Saturday 31st July 2010 22:56 GMT xantastic
    
    Analogy Addendum
    
    Even more, it's like you were the best damn TV leaser ever and you wanted to lease 1M TV's from this shop. And you agree to keep renewing your lease every year.
    
    Since you're going to spend so much of your cash with this TV shop you'd expect to get a good deal, no?
    
    And yet you're completely ripped off at every chance by every TV shop. Throw the book at 'em.
    
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Friday 30th July 2010 09:30 GMT <shakes head>

US Gov are bitter

the penned a contract and are not upset that Oracle found some loopholes. Here is some advice, write better contracts.

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1. Friday 30th July 2010 12:57 GMT Ian Michael Gumby
  
  Too funny.
  
  The government was fat dumb and happy until a 'retired' Oracle employee blew the whistle on them. He stands to collect a very large 'bonus' check from reporting the misdeeds.
  
  As to the contract, Oracle agreed to the contract, and incidentally I believe the same clause is in all GSA contracts in an effort to try and get the lowest price possible for the software.
  
  Oracle doesn't care because they'll settle, take the charge, and write it off against today's profits.
  
  To them its the cost of doing business.
  
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Friday 30th July 2010 09:30 GMT Anonymous Coward

No problem for Oracle

They'll just cahnge the licensing to number of concurrent threads / number of processors + the square of number of cores * number of days in the month * the average wind speed for the day = shafting more customers by confusing the fuck out of them and getting away with it.

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Friday 30th July 2010 09:40 GMT lglethal

Wait a sec...

Did i misunderstand something here - Paul Frascella started the lawsuit in 2007 when he was still working with Oracle? And only jumped ship (or i guess more likely was pushed) in 2008?

Wow that takes balls! Suing your company whilst your still working for them - Just Wow!

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1. Friday 30th July 2010 12:57 GMT Ian Michael Gumby
  
  And he gets a nice lump sum...
  
  Under the whistle blower laws, Paul will take home a tidy sum.
  
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