The case is about intellectual property. It began six years ago when Oracle sued Google for using APIs tied to Java (more on this below) without permission. Google won at an initial trial in 2012 when a jury found the company didn’t infringe Oracle’s patents, and a judge concluded the APIs didn’t qualify for copyright protection. But in a ruling that shocked the tech community, an appeals court found in 2014 that Oracle’s APIs were indeed covered by copyright. The ruling also kicked the case back to the lower court to determine whether Google’s use of the APIs counted as a “fair use.” Now, at this second trial, a jury will look at the fair use question.
| "Without the APIs that Google took, Java programmers would have found it cumbersome to use the Android platform, isn't that true?" Hurst asked. "In using these API declarations, Android met developer expectations," he said. "If they hadn’t, it would have been cumbersome to use." "You also said Android would not work without the APIs Google copied," Hurst said. "Android wouldn't work if you took one line of code out of it," Astrachan countered. "If you removed the libraries, it would also stop working." Finally, Hurst asked Astrachan to read part of the code of ethics for the Association for Computing Machinery, a professional organization. "Let's look at paragraph 1.5," she said. "Honor property rights, including copyrights and patents," Astrachan intoned. "Even when software is not so protected, such violations are contrary to professional behavior. Copies of software should be made only with proper authorization. Unauthorized duplication of materials must not be condoned." "You ask your classes, how many of them have downloaded music or movies, don't you?" she said. "I do, and it's surprising how many raise their hand," Astrachan said. "But you think the right thing to do is purchase what needs to be purchased, right?" He did. "You tell your students if they’re going to use commercial software they should pay for it, right?" Hurst asked. Yes, he did. Finally, Hurst asked if "everyone was able to ignore restrictions on open source licenses by claiming it was fair use," wouldn't that "erode and prejudice the whole open source system?" "I don't think that's right," said Astrachan. "It's just using a very small amount of code. If I'm just using parts of the software or using it in different ways—the reason we're here is to understand whether a use might be fair." |
Credits:
http://fortune.com/2016/05/09/google-oracle-fair-use/
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