SAN JOSE – The big breeze you just felt was a collective sigh of relief from the hoards of people who make devices based on Android. A San Francisco jury delivered a partial decision that appears to give Google the green light to continue selling Android in its current form.
Oracle is suing Google for violating the Java copyrights and patents it acquired with Sun Microsystems. Oracle is asking for at least a billion dollars in damages and an injunction against Android, and it is threatening people selling Android systems that they might owe royalties to Oracle.
Fears that Google might need to significantly revise Android appear to be abating following a partial decision
rendered today in the first part of the case. The jury said Google did infringe copyright on 37 Java APIs, but could not decide whether or not that infringement was covered by fair use terms.
As with all court cases, plenty more shoes have yet to fall. Google is pressing for a retrial, hoping for a decisive win. Oracle still has a patent suit in play.
Like Java and Android code itself, the legal arguments are complex. The
judge’s instructions to the jury were in my view a daunting assignment requiring a relatively sophisticated understanding of both technical and legal issues.
The Associated Press did a good job
summarizing the jury’s decisions on the multiple questions it was asked. However, interpreting those decisions and understanding what next legal steps may fall from them is a much more complex task.
At a 30,000-foot view the horizon seems somewhat clear. As James Gosling, the
father of Java said, Google does appear to have copied parts of Java.
Google apparently made a decent case it had reason to believe it may not have needed a license. However, it and its many Android followers are far from free of threat at this stage.
I’d love to hear cogent insights from any legal eagles following the case. I’d also like to hear what OEMs and developers using Android are feeling and doing at this point. So please chime in below.
Meanwhile, the case goes on.
By the way, before anyone starts waving the flag of the free open source software movement, let’s remember there’s no free lunch. Google is giving away an operating system that a Microsoft or Apple would otherwise sell so it can get more eyeballs in front of its search engine and many, many other online services.
There’s a price for that free software. But that may not be determined by the Oracle v Google case.
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