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Necc0
Jun 30, 2005

by exmarx
Broken Cake
http://www.cio.com/article/2927074/us-sides-with-oracle-in-java-copyright-dispute-with-google.html

quote:

US sides with Oracle in Java copyright dispute with Google

The administration of President Barack Obama sided with Oracle in a dispute with Google on whether APIs, the specifications that let programs communicate with each other, are copyrightable.

Nothing about the API (application programming interface) code at issue in the case materially distinguishes it from other computer code, which is copyrightable, wrote Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli in a filing in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court had earlier asked for the government’s views in this controversial case, which has drawn the attention of scientists, digital rights group and the tech industry for its implications on current practices in developing software.

Although Google has raised important concerns about the effects that enforcing Oracle’s copyright could have on software development, those concerns are better addressed through a defense on grounds of fair use of copyrighted material, Verrilli wrote.

77 scientists, including Vinton “Vint” Cerf, Internet pioneer and Google’s chief Internet evangelist, and Ken Thompson, co-designer of the Unix operating system, submitted to the court last year that the free and open use of the APIs has been both routine and essential in the computer industry since its beginning, and depended on the “sensible assumption” that APIs and other interfaces were not copyrightable.

Oracle accused Google of infringing its copyrights and patents related to Java in its Android operating system. Google was charged with copying the structure and organization of the Java API, in part to make it easier for developers, familiar with Java, to write programs for the mobile operating system.

The Internet giant, however, holds that the API code is not entitled to copyright protection because it constitutes a “method of operation” or “system” under Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act.

Judge William Alsup of the District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in 2012 that the APIs were not copyrightable, but this decision was overturned in May last year by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which ruled that the Java API packages can be copyrighted. Google then asked the Supreme Court to review the Federal Circuit decision.

The uncopyrightable “method of operation” or “system” or “process” under Section 102(b) is the underlying computer function triggered by the written code, according to Verrilli. “The code itself, however, is eligible for copyright protection,” he wrote.

The government in its filing asked the Supreme Court not to review the case and recommended its remand over Google’s fair-use defense to the lower court.

“While we’re disappointed, we look forward to supporting the clear language of the law and defending the concepts of interoperability that have traditionally contributed to innovation in the software industry,” Google said in a statement Tuesday, in response to the government filing.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association said in a statement that the Justice Department got it wrong. Imposing legal constraints on the interoperation between programming languages can lead to serious competitive harm, it added.

Oracle did not immediately comment.

awwwww yeah folks!

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Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006
owned. thanks Obama.

Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006
I am also hoping oracle curb stomps Oregon and that the feds not only side w/ oracle but also obliterate the corrupt as poo poo Oregon government.

without our heroes in oracles legal team fighting for justice, no one would have known just how bad Oregon's state government truly is.

Baxate
Feb 1, 2011

Shaggar posted:

I am also hoping oracle curb stomps Oregon and that the feds not only side w/ oracle but also obliterate the corrupt as poo poo Oregon government.

without our heroes in oracles legal team fighting for justice, no one would have known just how bad Oregon's state government truly is.

the injustice of not paying for a crummy computerman service

The Management
Jan 2, 2010

sup, bitch?
I want to see google get hosed as much as anyone but this is a bad decision

The Management
Jan 2, 2010

sup, bitch?
:rip: wine

computer parts
Nov 18, 2010

PLEASE CLAP

Ludwig van Halen posted:

the injustice of naming another city Portland

Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006

idk why you need wine. windows licenses are pretty cheap.

Jenny Agutter
Mar 18, 2009

this seems like a bad thing. what reason besides insane google hatred or oracle stock ownderhsip would anyone have to support this

Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006
because people should be paid for their work.

Smythe
Oct 12, 2003
did oracle claim that using any kind of api in general infringed their copyright, or some kind of specific java api? Sorry, I'm not a computer professional and I don't have a college degree. Bless

Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006
oracle claims a copyright on the java standard library API. this standard library ships with every copy of java so that people can code against it using the standard classes and interfaces defined by the API. this makes code more interoperable and portable.

google decided to use java as the language for android and they could have written their own standard library + API, but instead they decided to copy the standard library API from oracle. they claim the implementation is original work (questionable) but the API is unquestioningly copied straight up from oracle. this is so goog could take advantage of all the preexisting code out there in the java world. this also makes their claim that the implementation is original work highly suspect since changes to the implementation could cause compatibility problems with regular java libs.

Baxate
Feb 1, 2011

the claim is that Google copied the Java api for some reason. so the code you write for android is Java but not really

I still don't know why goog opted for Java in the first place. so all those Java se devs could port their desktop apps to android...?

angry_keebler
Jul 16, 2006

In His presence the mountains quake and the hills melt away; the earth trembles and its people are destroyed. Who can stand before His fierce anger?

Busta Chimes.wav posted:

this seems like a bad thing. what reason besides insane google hatred or oracle stock ownderhsip would anyone have to support this

it is good because the white house doesn't want larry to give millions of dollars to the republicans next year so they're doing him a solid and this is a cool and appropriate way for the government of a republic to function

Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006

Ludwig van Halen posted:

the claim is that Google copied the Java api for some reason. so the code you write for android is Java but not really

I still don't know why goog opted for Java in the first place. so all those Java se devs could port their desktop apps to android...?

there is a massive amount of preexisting java code covering loads of problems so if you need to do something, theres like a 99% chance theres already a java lib for it. Also, java is massively popular so there are loads of developers who already understand it. lastly, its a pretty good language on its own and their only other language choice would have been c# and they aren't gonna poke that bear.

Stymie
Jan 9, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
i hope the judge passes down the sentence that larry page and sergey brin are strangled to death with larry ellison's entrails

Baxate
Feb 1, 2011

Shaggar posted:

oracle claims a copyright on the java standard library API. this standard library ships with every copy of java so that people can code against it using the standard classes and interfaces defined by the API. this makes code more interoperable and portable.

google decided to use java as the language for android and they could have written their own standard library + API, but instead they decided to copy the standard library API from oracle. they claim the implementation is original work (questionable) but the API is unquestioningly copied straight up from oracle. this is so goog could take advantage of all the preexisting code out there in the java world. this also makes their claim that the implementation is original work highly suspect since changes to the implementation could cause compatibility problems with regular java libs.

so it sounds like google didn't have the foresight to know phone apps are not desktop apps. much like their tablet strategy. got it

Maximum Leader
Dec 5, 2014

The Management posted:

I want to see google get hosed as much as anyone but this is a bad decision

Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006

Ludwig van Halen posted:

so it sounds like google didn't have the foresight to know phone apps are not desktop apps. much like their tablet strategy. got it

idk what you mean by that

emoji
Jun 4, 2004

Ludwig van Halen posted:

so it sounds like google didn't have the foresight to know phone apps are not desktop apps. much like their tablet strategy. got it

They didn't want to invest in creating their own development community+infrastructure, instead just using the one Oracle has heavily invested in without paying the license appropriate for enterprises like everyone else

Maximum Leader
Dec 5, 2014

Ludwig van Halen posted:

so it sounds like google didn't have the foresight to know phone apps are not desktop apps. much like their tablet strategy. got it

they're stupid for buying android in the first place but they prob didn't make that decision. they did choose to stick with it though

Baxate
Feb 1, 2011

Shaggar posted:

idk what you mean by that

by the sound of it they wanted existing Java Se devs to latch onto android by the simple fact they had Java experience... for the desktop

Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006
most of java then was server side stuff. desktop java apps died when sun kicked Microsoft out. not that it matters as java is identical on desktop server or phone.

Jenny Agutter
Mar 18, 2009

Ludwig van Halen posted:

by the sound of it they wanted existing Java Se devs to latch onto android by the simple fact they had Java experience... for the desktop

who else exactly was supposed to start making apps?

Perplx
Jun 26, 2004


Best viewed on Orgasma Plasma
Lipstick Apathy
doesn't this mean that microsoft's recently announced obj-c iOS compiler for windows 10 phone is also illegal?

Valeyard
Mar 30, 2012


Grimey Drawer
google is ownage and just lol at anyone thinking they can take them on

Squeezy Farm
Jun 16, 2009

Larry Parrish
Jul 9, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I guess I 'get' that at the time, x86 hardware was too hot and too power-draining to be used in smartphones, but come on. Surely they is something better than The ARM Aids requiring the poo poo android does to make sure programs run vaguely the same on every phone.

Lutha Mahtin
Oct 10, 2010

Your brokebrain sin is absolved...go and shitpost no more!

this function takes 2 floats as arguments and returns a double. COPYRIGHT 2015 LUTHA DO NOT STEAL

CRIP EATIN BREAD
Jun 24, 2002

Hey stop worrying bout my acting bitch, and worry about your WACK ass music. In the mean time... Eat a hot bowl of Dicks! Ice T



Soiled Meat

Lutha Mahtin posted:

this function takes 2 floats as arguments and returns a double. COPYRIGHT 2015 LUTHA DO NOT STEAL

i named mine func(y, x) instead so i skirted your bullshit copyright

carry on then
Jul 10, 2010

by VideoGames

(and can't post for 10 years!)

lol i guess they forgot the part where the person who copies the spec and the person who implements it from the spec have to be different

welcome to 1985 i guess

black pete
Mar 24, 2015

DON'T MIND ME!

I'LL MAKE JOKES ABOUT RAPE.
What's the most edgy and controversial viewpoint in this thread that I haven't read at all? That's the viewpoint that I'm taking here.

black pete
Mar 24, 2015

DON'T MIND ME!

I'LL MAKE JOKES ABOUT RAPE.
I'm going to side with Google as they provide me with lots of neat internet functionality and great search results, and oracle provide me with, uh, no idea.

MrMoo
Sep 14, 2000

Larry Parrish posted:

I guess I 'get' that at the time, x86 hardware was too hot and too power-draining to be used in smartphones, but come on. Surely they is something better than The ARM Aids requiring the poo poo android does to make sure programs run vaguely the same on every phone.

It has predominantly been about money, Intel licensing tries to follow their extreme desktop & server markup model. Also, see mass migration of vendors from Windows Phone to Android.

Also, see the licensing mistakes of Google TV compared with Android TV. Google TV enforced usage of an expensive lovely processor from only one vendor.

cremnob
Jun 30, 2010

a good decision

BONGHITZ
Jan 1, 1970

But what about freedom???

med school head
Apr 17, 2012

Valeyard posted:

google is ownage and just lol at anyone thinking they can take them on

shut up bitch

Valeyard
Mar 30, 2012


Grimey Drawer

gargle chome posted:

shut up bitch

That's it. Yer hosed now pal.

A COMPUTER GUY
Aug 23, 2007

I can't spare this man - he fights.
countdown to google releasing an android sdk in Go or Rust or some other bullshit like that

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Necc0
Jun 30, 2005

by exmarx
Broken Cake

Ludwig van Halen posted:

the claim is that Google copied the Java api for some reason. so the code you write for android is Java but not really

I still don't know why goog opted for Java in the first place. so all those Java se devs could port their desktop apps to android...?

reminder that what got this whole shitcircus started was the goog trying to weasel out of paying sun's laughably pithy licensing fees and knowing that they wouldn't do anything about it. then sun was acquired by larry and :redass:

Necc0 fucked around with this message at 21:49 on May 27, 2015

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