Oracle/Google settlement talks fail, Java patent trial to start April 16

[tgell]

Judge deals deathblow to Oracle in Google fight

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Google will not have to pay Oracle anything for violating 37 Java copyrights, because they are not copyrightable, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The ruling -- the final verdict in a landmark court case between two Silicon Valley titans -- affirms the industry's long-held belief that certain key bits of software code that help applications talk to one another are fair game for anyone to use.

Article

[Hungry Man]

That makes me happy. The fact that this sets a legitimate precedent for Open APIs is really just nice to see. Long term technology will be better because of this, short term... **** oracle.

[dw426]

If only this were the end of the atrocious patent/copyright wars.

[tgell]

Remember when Apple sued Microsoft because of the Windows GUI? Then Xerox sued Apple. What a mess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_C...ft_Corporation

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

That makes me happy. The fact that this sets a legitimate precedent for Open APIs is really just nice to see. Long term technology will be better because of this, short term... **** oracle.

The consequences might prove to be good, but the arguments used by Google were a mix of crap and BS.

[Hungry Man]

With all of your experience programming I'm sure I'll take your opinion seriously lol

But, really, no. This passing would have been awful and it isn't difficult to understand why patenting APIs that are open and inherent to the entire language would not only have immediate repercussions but also long term due to the precedent it would set.

Refute this then.

But yeah, my programming experience is 0. Too lazy to deal with all those numbers and formulas.

[Hungry Man]

I don't care about Google's case or the points they made (on either side), only the outcome.

[tgell]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

With all of your experience programming I'm sure I'll take your opinion seriously lol

But, really, no. This passing would have been awful and it isn't difficult to understand why patenting APIs that are open and inherent to the entire language would not only have immediate repercussions but also long term due to the precedent it would set.

+1

It would have been a legal nightmare.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by tgell

Judge deals deathblow to Oracle in Google fight



Article

Thank you for the news

Now to hit Groklaw where the celebrations will be on!

Let's see what will happen at the appeal.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

Can I just say that I find it hilarious that anyone is supporting this. ...
edit: Hilarious but a bit sad.

I'll feel sad only if "anyone" comes out of denial. But I think that the word has gone out to the faithful to do their best to put Google down however they can. And "anyone" certainly does that.

I'll also love to read how that other self-proclaimed authority, FM, spins this. FM wasn't much known earlier but now he's been totally exposed. Even the two companies that employed him as an "independent" sock puppet may do a rethink.

[dw426]

Originally Posted by guest

Let's see what will happen at the appeal.

The same outcome, and that's assuming they keep their promise to appeal. Oracle never had much of a chance to begin with, and any different outcome would take years and millions of more dollars. The only thing they can hope for is statutory damage, and that's less than a million bucks. Insert fork, it's over.

lol

Originally Posted by vasa1

I'll feel sad only if "anyone" comes out of denial.

What denial?

Originally Posted by vasa1

But I think that the word has gone out to the faithful to do their best to put Google down however they can. And "anyone" certainly does that.

From where?

[Hungry Man]

Oracle's legal battle to break itself off a chunk of the smartphone market by attacking Android looks dead in the water today, after a federal judge who recently finished presiding over the six-week Oracle v. Google trial ruled that the structure of the Java APIs that Oracle was trying to assert can't be copyrighted at all.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/google-wins-crucial-api-ruling-oracles-case-decimated/

[dw426]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/google-wins-crucial-api-ruling-oracles-case-decimated/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...ase-decimated/ Fixed

[vasa1]

I understand that the decision is specific to the issue litigated so idiots are free to litigate copyright status of other apis.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by vasa1

I understand that the decision is specific to the issue litigated so idiots are free to litigate copyright status of other apis.

Hmm...

"This order does not hold that Java API packages are free for all to use without license", Judge Alsup said today. "It does not hold that the structure, sequence and organisation of all computer programs may be stolen. Rather, it holds on the specific facts of this case, the particular elements replicated by Google were free for all to use under the Copyright Act".

quoted by http://www.itproportal.com/2012/06/0...e-with-oracle/

but then ...

Judge William Alsup also seems to be trying to restrict the broad patent litigation that’s so prevalent in technology nowadays. ... Alsup notes that “we should not yield to the temptation to find copyrightability merely to reward an investment made in a body of intellectual property.” The judge goes on to say that Oracle has overblown the whole case, which casts doubts on Oracle’s ability to appeal the verdict. ... it’s surely a case that will be cited down the road ...

from http://www.slashgear.com/google-scor...able-01231168/

[vasa1]

This is FM on himself:
"Out of the 700+ blog posts I've done so far (which as per today, June 1, 2012, have been read well over 5 million times (see the real-time counter, courtesy of Google, in the right-hand column) and been mentioned in articles that in my estimate have collectively been viewed many billions of times"

I wonder if he'll use that argument to placate his employer(s).

BTW, he's now turned his expert's eye to the Google versus Nokia/MSFT/Mosaid story.

But he does manage to question Alsup's competence and how he conducted of the trial:
... if Judge Alsup wasn't unsure of his own position on (un)copyrightability, he'd never have held a copyright trial that was almost entirely about the APIs. The Federal Circuit, which has more expertise in intellectual property than any single district court, is now going to look at this."

[tgell]

Found this kind of interesting in the article.

Overall, Oracle spent many millions—perhaps tens of millions—on its legal crusade against Google and came up empty. The company scanned 15 million lines of Android code and found one simple nine-line function that had been copied from Java; that code is no longer in Android, and Oracle will be limited to statutory damages for that copying, which can't be more than $150,000 (and could be much less).

To get any copyright royalties from Google, Oracle will not only have to get Alsup's API decision overturned on appeal, it would have to win a whole new jury trial as well. That will take years and looks exceedingly unlikely at this point.

[vasa1]

The Oracle v. Google aftermath

Two Google lawyers reflect on the case

Too short