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Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google

#2

Post by xiphias2 »

,,Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google''

I don't see how losing even a few billion dollars could be a disaster for Google at this point. They control most of the smart phones in the world, and that's worth much more than that amount of money (regardless of whether using Java was the right choice or not).

Re: Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google

#4

Post by vlovich123 »

> This is a widespread practice in the software industry. Oracle, for example, re-implemented Amazon's S3 API so that customers who built software for Amazon's cloud platform could easily switch to Oracle's rival cloud platform.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Re: Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google

#5

Post by bradfitz »

xiphias2 wrote: post #2

,,Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google'' I don't see how losing even a few billion dollars could be a disaster for Google at this point. They control most of the smart phones in the world, and that's worth much more than that amount of money (regardless of whether using Java was the right choice or not).

Few billion dollars, sure. Except that little Supreme Court decision on API copyrightability thing.

Re: Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google

#6

Post by Aqueous »

This might not just be a disaster for Google - it could be a disaster for software everywhere. If APIs become copyrightable, what happens to any open source software the implements a proprietary API?

Supreme court judges just do not have the conceptual framework to properly adjudicate this. I don't think it's going to be possible to teach them the difference between interface and implementation within the parameters of these arguments. And beyond that the conservative majority is predisposed to treat everything as property. This is not going to end well.

Re: Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google

#7

Post by ocdtrekkie »

Aqueous wrote: post #6

This might not just be a disaster for Google - it could be a disaster for software everywhere. If APIs become copyrightable, what happens to any open source software the implements a proprietary API? Supreme court judges just do not have the conceptual framework to properly adjudicate this. I don't think it's going to be possible to teach them the difference between interface and implementation within the parameters…

APIs being copyrightable doesn't actually harm implementations of APIs that fall under fair use. (Fair use exemptions specifically apply to copyrighted things.) Interoperability is fair use. And things like something being non-commercial, such as a lot of open source software, is a major factor in determining whether or not usage is fair. Things like WINE or NES emulators or the like would fall very comfortably into fair use.

It's nowhere near as world-ending as Google's public policy team would like you to believe. But given that Android is not fair use (it's not interoperable, they just wanted to glom on the popularity of the platform), it sucks for Google.

Re: Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google

#9

Post by mathraki »

Where are the expert witnesses in this case?? Do we really expect judges in their 60s and 70s to understand basics of coding in order to come to the right conclusion??

I put myself in their shoes, if I had never looked at a line of code I couldn't even start to imagine what an API vs real code is. I'd probably think it's some made up concept that Google is using to save money and circumvent the law.

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