Re:Jury in Oracle v. Google finds in Google's favour
by AnimalMuppet on Thursday May 26, 2016 @05:35PM
(#11781847)
If I learned one thing from the SCO mess, it's that a high-powered law firm can take absolutely no case and make it last at least a decade.
Re:Jury in Oracle v. Google finds in Google's favour
by sounds on Thursday May 26, 2016 @07:31PM
(#11782585)
This law suit is frivolous based on the assumption that APIs are not copyrightable (a very reasonable assumption in 2009).
Re:Jury in Oracle v. Google finds in Google's favour
by icebraining on Thursday May 26, 2016 @08:42PM
(#11783030)
But the result of the trial was that they are copyrightable, so clearly it wasn't frivolous.
Re:Jury in Oracle v. Google finds in Google's favour
by geofft on Friday May 27, 2016 @01:08AM
(#11784025)
The appellate court ruled that the law is that APIs are copyrightable, and sent it back. The jury decision here was that Google made fair use of a copyrighted API, not that APIs aren't copyrightable.
From a developer perspective, the ideal and just end result has always seemed rather obvious. However, the multi-year history of this case demonstrates the correct legal answer not so obvious, at least from a legal perspective.
For example, settling the issue on fair use was definitely not how most people thought/hoped this would shake out way back in the beginning of the law suit(s).