United States:
Exclusive Rights, Episode 3 —Understanding The SCOTUS Fair Use Decision In Google v. Oracle (Podcast)
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Does Google's Android API infringe Oracle's copyright in
its Java API? That's the question the Supreme Court was
asked to deal with in Google v. Oracle recently. In this
episode of the EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS: Intellectual Property
podcast, Mintz IP attorneys
Todd B. Buck, PhD and
Michael R. Graif dive into the Court's decision regarding
Google's copying of 11,500 lines of "declaring" code
from Oracle's Java API.
Their informative discussion covers a number of pertinent
questions:
- Software is expressly protected under the Copyright Act insofar
as it is a set of instructions that directly or indirectly bring
about a certain result. So how is it okay for Google to copy this
code?
- The Supreme Court decided that Google's copying was fair
use without addressing copyrightability. How did that affect the
Court's fair use analysis?
- Unlike the 2.5 million lines of "implementing code,"
which Google rewrote, the "declaring" code that Google
copied contained the commands that Java programmers knew from
writing programs for laptops and desktops. How can copying code to
encourage further development for smartphones be a
"transformative" use?
- Oracle tried and failed to develop a platform for Java
programmers to write apps for smartphones. Google succeeded with
Android. Does that mean Google's copying had no "market
effect" on Oracle?
- Is this decision good for start-ups? What about established
software providers? What about open source software? How will this
ruling impact software programming going forward?
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For a breakdown of the complex legal considerations and
technical issues addressed in the Google ruling,
click on the link below to listen to the
podcast.
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