Let Oracle own APIs, Justice Dept tells top court in surprise filing
http://fortune.com/2015/05/26/google-oracle-api-supremecourt-obama-appeal/
In the case of Oracle and Google, the dispute turns on the search
giant's use of certain Java APIs for its Android software. Java is a
programming language that was developed by Oracle's predecessor, Sun
Microsystems, and is widely used by software developers. Google,
backed by tech trade groups and law professors, does not dispute that
computer code can be copyrighted. The parties argue instead that
Google only used a small portion of Oracle's Java Standard Library,
and did so only in order to use common signposts or headers, rather
than reinventing the instructions from scratch. The argument, in
effect, is that developers should be able to use these small chunks of
code, which serve as industry standards, free of copyright
restrictions. U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a respected Silicon
Valley judge, initially sided with Google in 2012 after teaching
himself Java for the trial. He found that the APIs were functional,
and fell on the wrong side of copyright law's "idea/expression
dichotomy" and merger doctrine - these are rules that prevents
copyright law from becoming too broad, and covering everyday things
like menus and simple instructions. Last year, however, the U.S.
Federal Circuit appeals court overturned that finding, and likened the
Java APIs to Charles Dickens and other literary works. The ruling drew
widespread scorn at the time ...
- - -
Follow the money. It doesn't matter which party is in the White House
in situations like this, they both know how to keep their bread
buttered.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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