Attorneys for Oracle and Google presented their closing arguments today in a lawsuit over Google\u2019s use of Java APIs owned by Oracle in Android. Oracle accused Google of stealing a collection of APIs, while Google suggested that Android transformed the smartphone market and Oracle sued out of desperation when its own smartphone attempts failed to launch.<\/p>\n
The case is expected to have sprawling impacts on the software industry. If the jury finds that Google did indeed steal code from Oracle, it could disturb the way engineers at small startups build their products and expose them to litigation from major companies whose programming languages they use.<\/p>\n
Before sending the jurors home last week, presiding Judge William Aslup joked that they should not look up what an API is online over the weekend. It was a lighthearted instruction meant to caution jurors against doing their own research in the case, but struck at a fear that\u2019s probably plaguing both legal teams \u2014 what if the jury still doesn\u2019t understand the technology at the heart of the case?<\/p>\n
At issue in Oracle\u2019s lawsuit is whether or not Google\u2019s implementation of 37 Java APIs in Android was fair use. Google has argued that Sun Microsystems, which created Java, always intended for its programming language and accompanying APIs to be used freely. Oracle purchased Sun\u00a0in 2010 and claimed that Sun executives believed Google had infringed their intellectual property and simply hadn\u2019t brought legal action.<\/p>\n
An appeals court has already decided that the Java APIs in question are copyrightable. This case, which has stretched over two weeks in a district court in San Francisco, aims to determine whether Google\u2019s implementation of the APIs can be considered fair use. Beginning this afternoon, the jury will consider several factors \u2014 most importantly, whether Google transformed Oracle\u2019s code when it built Android, and whether the introduction of Android harmed Oracle\u2019s business.<\/p>\n
Before the two tech titans can clearly argue\u00a0whether Google\u2019s use of the APIs was fair, they need to agree on how to explain APIs to their lay audience in the jury box \u2014 and they haven\u2019t done that. Even as Oracle and Google\u2019s legal teams laid out their final arguments today, they bickered over how best to describe an API.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s witnesses and lawyers offered a litany of explanations for APIs.\u00a0Google attorneys\u00a0recycled a filing cabinet analogy<\/a>\u00a0from the first round of Oracle v. Google, in which they compared the packages, classes and methods contained within the Java API library as cabinets, drawers and individual manila files.<\/p>\n Other witnesses for Google entertained their own comparisons: Jonathan Schwartz, the former CEO of Sun, explained APIs by comparing them to hamburgers. Many restaurants have the word \u201chamburger\u201d on their menu, he said, but the recipes \u2014 in the world of APIs, the implementations \u2014 are unique. Other witnesses sought to compare APIs to such\u00a0ubiquitous\u00a0items like wall outlets and the gas pedals of cars. No matter the comparison, the point was the same: Google never expected that its use of something so common would become so contested.<\/p>\n In a bid to portray APIs as a creative endeavor worthy of strong copyright protection, Oracle\u2019s lead attorney, Peter Bicks, compared them to Harry Potter novels, saying the packages, classes and methods could be understood as the series, books and chapters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Attorneys for Oracle and Google presented their closing arguments today in a lawsuit over Google\u2019s use of Java APIs owned by Oracle in Android. Oracle accused Google of stealing a collection of APIs, while Google suggested that Android transformed the smartphone market and Oracle sued out of desperation when its own smartphone attempts failed to …<\/p>\n Google and Oracle present closing arguments in battle over Java<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,52,2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-local","category-news","category-technology"],"acf":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3.jpg",1200,800,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3.jpg",1200,800,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3.jpg",1200,800,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3-100x100.jpg",100,100,true],"rt_custom":["https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/image_3.jpg",1200,800,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"International<\/a> Local<\/a> News<\/a> Technology<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Attorneys for Oracle and Google presented their closing arguments today in a lawsuit over Google\u2019s use of Java APIs owned by Oracle in Android. Oracle accused Google of stealing a collection of APIs, while Google suggested that Android transformed the smartphone market and Oracle sued out of desperation when its own smartphone attempts failed to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10,"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/10"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}