The battle between Oracle and Google over the use of Java APIs in Android threatened to make using APIs to leverage applications and services a much more complex and possibly cumbersome process.
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Oracle sought more than $9 billion in damages from Google. A federal appeals court disagreed in 2014, ruling that computer language that connects programs – known as application programming interfaces, or APIs – can be copyrighted.
In 2010, Oracle sued Google for copyright and patent infringement of core Java technologies that were used in the development of Android. “We believe there are numerous grounds for appeal”.
After Oracle appealed against the decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the APIs could be protected by copyright and said that Google’s Android software had infringed them.
Oracle argued that Google effectively stole them, copying the lines of code wholesale to create its mobile operating system, now the world’s largest.
The Java APIs were open-source, free to use for anyone. Oracle said Google then reaped huge profits through ad sales on Google services like maps and search engines on Android phones and tablets. Instead, Oracle told the jury, Google “took a shortcut”.
Google argued that because it used only a small part of Java to create Android, a much larger system of software built for a new goal, it qualified for a “fair use” exemption from copyright. It reached the verdict after three days of deliberation in San Francisco court. Additionally, TechRepublic contributor Matt Asay argued that an Oracle win would have proven problematic for the software industry, as it has been moving away from licensing for quite some time.
The issue here is whether APIs can be subject to copyright, and if so, whether there is a fair use exception.
After the verdict was announced, Alsup thanked the jury for their service but also acknowledged the case is not over yet because there will likely be “appeals and the like”.
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Oracle in a statement after the verdict said it would appeal. That case ended in 2012 with Google being largely the victor. Oracle acquired Sun in 2010, and ever since “has been trying to monetize Java”, Falcon said.
