“Google will not have to pay Oracle anything for violating 37 Java copyrights, because they are not copyrightable, a federal judge ruled Thursday,” David Goldman reports for CNNMoney.
“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,” Goldman reports. “Android originally used several lines of code that Sun had written for Java. That code, called application programming interfaces, or APIs, are essentially a way for apps to communicate with the operating system. Since Java is an open-source software, its APIs are generally free and available for public use. Judge William Alsup ruled Thursday that those APIs are not copyrightable because they are so basic and fundamental.”
Goldman reports, “As a result, Alsup threw out a judgment handed down by a jury last month that said Google violated the copyrights on 37 Java APIs owned by Oracle. He also denied Google’s pursuit of a mistrial, calling the issue ‘moot’ since he ultimately ruled in the company’s favor. Google will owe no damages to Oracle. In a separate part of the case, a jury last week cleared Google of violating any of Oracle’s patents with Android. For those keeping score at home, that’s Google 3, Oracle 0.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Justice.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
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