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Big Law

SCOTUS Rules That Google’s Use of Oracle’s Source Code Was Fair Use

This April, the U.S. Supreme Court resolved a decade-long dispute between tech giants Google and Oracle. The Court found in Google’s favor, holding that its copying of source code from Oracle’s Java SE platform for its Android operating system was fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. 

The case concerns Google’s Android platform, which allows software developers to build applications for mobile devices.  Because so many developers were already familiar with Oracle’s Java programming language, Google wanted to include portions of the Java SE Application Programming Interface (“API”) source code in its platform to make it easier for computer programmers to work with Android. More specifically, Google wanted to use the Java API “declaring code,” or the naming conventions and system of organization for the source code (which serves as a set of shortcuts for programmers). Google wrote its own “implementing code,” which tells the computer how to carry out tasks (or source code in the traditional sense).

Google sought to license the Java code from Sun Microsystems (Oracle’s predecessor) on four separate occasions. But after negotiations broke down, Google went ahead and built its Android platform using the Java declaring code.  Oracle subsequently filed suit for, inter alia, copyright infringement. After over ten years of litigation, the case ended up at the Supreme Court.

Read the source article at Welcome to Mondaq

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