Re:Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster...
by dodobirdlord on Friday October 09, 2020 @12:15AM
(#24726764)
Google already switched Android over to OpenJDK in 2016, which they have an absolutely ironclad right to use without paying for. If Oracle does end up winning the payout will be for the period of 2008-2016 when Google was using their own home brewed Java implementation.
Re:Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster...
by johncolanduoni on Friday October 09, 2020 @04:21AM
(#24727908)
Unless this ruling becomes applicable to the Java bytecode format, in which case they can go after Dalvik and ART (the latter of which is still in use).
Because APIs have never before been considered copyrightable, unless Google wins on fair use in this case, we will have exactly zero on-point case law as to when an API reimplementation is fair use.
Speculating on what would be considered fair use in API re-implementations in that case would be extremely speculative.
> The amount of money Oracle would get back (and going forwards) in licensing fees for Android would probably dwarf most financial prospects from any API reimplementations that might be at risk.
Maybe more than existing ones, but is it worth more than the entire strategy of using API reimplementation to stay in the game against Amazon, who is far and away ahead in cloud? Is losing that worth a parasitic claim on Android until Google replaces it with something not subject to that claim?