Ethics Class 2

Computer Ethics, Sum 2016

Class 2

Class 2 Readings

Read all of chapter 1 and the first five sections of chapter 4.

Oracle v Google

Google won! The jurors returned their verdict this afternoon (May 26).

Long long ago, Google wanted to license the Java language from Sun Microsystems for use in Android. Things went back and forth, and Google ended up deciding to create their own implementation of Java. But to use this they had to borrow the Java API, eg things like

Socket(InetAddress address, int port)
Socket(InetAddress address, int port, InetAddress localAddr, int localPort)

Sun was bought by Oracle, who then sued on the theory that this API itself was copyrighted.

Today Oracle lost, though they can still appeal.

Back in 2012, Judge Alsup ruled that the API was not copyrightable at all. In 2014, the Federal Circuit reversed on that point. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, so it went back to Judge Alsup to hold a trial to decide whether Google's use of the API constituted Fair Use.