For over a decade, Google and Oracle have been fighting in court over whether the Android OS broke copyright law by using some computer code from Java. On Monday, the US Supreme Court finally ruled on the matter, and declared that Google’s use of the Java code was fair use.
The ruling is a win not just for Google, but also for software development in general. If the Supreme Court had sided with Oracle, the decision might have sparked a flood of lawsuits targeting apps and programs that have adopted snippets of computer code from other software products.
The Google v. Oracle case specifically dealt with Application Programming Interfaces or APIs, which can let a program communicate with other programs or operating systems. (For example, Facebook’s API opens the door for third-party developers and businesses to integrate with Instagram.)
When Google was developing Android it decided to include 11,500 lines of computer code taken from the Java SE API, which Oracle now owns through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Google adopted the code to help third-party programmers better use Android back when the operating system was only starting to take off. However, Oracle argued Google infringed on its copyright and technology patent by including the Java computer code in Android without the company’s permission.
Oracle has been seeking $9 billion in damages. But in a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court sided with Google, and ruled that no copyright was violated. In the decision, Justice Stephen Breyer noted the 11,500 lines of Java code lifted amounted to only “0.4 percent of the entire API at issue.”
“Google copied those lines not because of their creativity, their beauty, or even (in a sense) because of their purpose,” Breyer wrote in the majority opinion. “It copied them because programmers had already learned to work with the Sun Java API’s system, and it would have been difficult, perhaps prohibitively so, to attract programmers to build its Android smartphone system without them.
The court also looked at whether enforcing Oracle’s copyright of the Java API risked harming the public interest, and stifling software development. “Given the costs and difficulties of producing alternative APIs with similar appeal to programmers, allowing enforcement here would make of the Sun Java API’s declaring code a lock limiting the future creativity of new programs. Oracle alone would hold the key,” Breyer added.
Google’s senior vice president Kent Walker called the ruling a “win for innovation, interoperability and computing.” However, Oracle told CNN that the company still maintains Google “stole” its computer code.
“The Google platform just got bigger and market power greater,” Oracle reportedly said. “The barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower …. This behavior is exactly why regulatory authorities around the world and in the United States are examining Google’s business practices.”
