Just yesterday Alphabet Inc's Google asked the US Supreme Court to reverse a ruling that revived a copyright case brought by Oracle Corp that dates to 2010. Google urged the high court to rule its copying of Oracle's Java programming language to create the Android operating system was permissible under US copyright law.
In 2016, the jury sided with Google, denying Oracle's bid for about US$9 billion in damages, but the verdict was reversed by US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in March 2018. The Federal Circuit said in its decision that Google could not invoke the fair use defence because it copied the Java APIs verbatim and ‘for an identical function and purpose’.
Google said the Federal Circuit's ruling in favour of Oracle was a "devastating one-two punch at the software industry" that would freeze innovation.
Oracle’s general counsel Dorian Daley said that Google is rehashing arguments that have already been discredited. ‘The fabricated concern about innovation hides Google's true concern: that it be allowed the unfettered ability to copy the original and valuable work of others for substantial financial gain’, Daley said.
The litigation involves how much copyright protection should extend to Oracle's Java programming language, which Google used to design the Android operating system that runs most of the world's smartphones. Oracle is seeking royalties for Google’s unauthorized use of portions of the Java language known as application programming interfaces (APIs), which are tools that allow different computer programs to talk to each other.
Google has said copyright protection should not extend to APIs because they are essential tools for creating software.
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Thanks for reading
Mason