{"id":41973,"date":"2021-04-06T10:24:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T10:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/?guid=21388d34f23add404fbbd9d71931ac92"},"modified":"2021-04-06T10:24:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T10:24:05","slug":"google-defeats-oracle-in-decade-long-api-copyright-feud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/google-defeats-oracle-in-decade-long-api-copyright-feud\/","title":{"rendered":"Google defeats Oracle in decade-long API copyright feud"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Zach Marzouk<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
6 Apr, 2021<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Google has won a major copyright case after the US Supreme Court ruled in its favour over Oracle\u2019s claim that the use of its software code in the Android OS violated copyright law.<\/p>\n

In the 6-2 decision, justices decided to overturn a lower US court\u2019s ruling that Google\u2019s inclusion of\u00a0Oracle\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0software code in its operating system did not constitute fair use under US copyright law.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nJustice Breyer, writing the\u00a0opinion of the court<\/a>\u00a0for the justices that ruled on it, stated that allowing enforcement of Oracle\u2019s copyright would \u201crisk harm to the public\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the costs and difficulties of producing alternative\u00a0APIs<\/a>\u00a0with similar appeal to programmers, allowing enforcement here would make of the Sun Java API\u2019s declaring code a lock limiting the future creativity of new programs. Oracle alone would hold the key. The result could well prove highly profitable to\u00a0Oracle<\/a>\u00a0(or other firms holding a copyright in computer interfaces),\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Breyer added that the \u201clock\u201d would interfere with, not further, copyright\u2019s basic creativity objectives.<\/p>\n

The court found that\u00a0Google<\/a>\u2019s copying of the Sun Java API was \u201ca fair use of that material as a matter of law\u201d. The Supreme Court reversed the Federal Circuit\u2019s \u201ccontrary judgement\u201d and the case has been remanded for further proceedings \u201cin conformity with this opinion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kent Walker, Google\u2019s SVP of Global Affairs, told\u00a0IT Pro<\/em>\u00a0that the ruling is a victory for consumers, interoperability, and computer science.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision gives legal certainty to the next generation of developers whose new products and services will benefit consumers. We are very grateful for the support from a wide range of organizations, from the National Consumers League to the American Library Association, as well as from established\u00a0 companies, start-ups, and the country\u2019s leading software engineers and copyright scholars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dorian Daley, executive vice president and general counsel at Oracle,\u00a0said in a statement<\/a>\u00a0that Google\u2019s platform just got bigger and its market power greater, which has elevated the barriers to entry and the ability to compete lower.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey stole Java and spent a decade litigating as only a monopolist can. This behaviour is exactly why\u00a0regulatory authorities<\/a>\u00a0around the world and in the United States are examining Google\u2019s business practices,\u201d Daley stated.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s parent company, Alphabet, also has plans in the coming weeks to stop using Oracle\u2019s financial software and instead use software from SAP, according to\u00a0CNBC<\/a><\/em>. The company\u2019s core financial systems are reportedly scheduled to move to SAP in May, but for now, there is no other indication the company is moving other systems off Oracle.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the court\u2019s decision, Hannu Valtonen, chief product officer at Aiven, called it a \u201cvictory for the entire software industry\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>If Oracle had won, Google\u2019s usage of the Java API in developing the Android operating system would be considered copyright infringement,\u201d said Valtonen. \u201cA change to the fair use of\u00a0APIs<\/a>\u00a0would\u2019ve severely slowed down the current pace of software innovation and created more cutthroat competition between tech giants who could potentially block the use of an API without payment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor startups like ours, the fair and open usage of certain technologies promotes successful innovation for everyone, and Google\u2019s win is certainly a positive result for end-users.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oracle\u2019s\u00a0copyright battle with Google<\/a>\u00a0has been ongoing for\u00a011 years<\/a>\u00a0and in 2018 it was seeking around $8.8 billion in damages following the ruling in its favour.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the\u00a0Supreme Court agreed to hear the copyright lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0between the two tech giants as Google petitioned the court in January\u00a0asking it to overturn \u201ca devastating one-two punch at the software industry\u201d. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zach Marzouk<\/p>\n

6 Apr, 2021 <\/p>\n

Google has won a major copyright case after the US Supreme Court ruled in its favour over Oracle\u2019s claim that the use of its software code in the Android OS violated copyright law.
\nIn the 6-2 dec…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":654,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41974,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41973\/revisions\/41974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}