Jury Saves Google Nearly $10bn
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A Californian jury has saved Google nearly $10 billion in potential copyright damages
A San Francisco jury has reduced damages
payable by Google by approximately $9.3bn as a result of finding that it had
not infringed Oracle's copyright in the development of its Android
system.
The Oracle claim related to use by Google
of the Java application programming interfaces (APIs), which are programs used
to perform common computer functions. Oracle estimated the proceeds of this
infringement to be in excess of $51bn since 2008 and claimed $9.3bn in damages
and account of profits as a result.
Oracle purchased the Java APIs from Sun
Microsystems in 2010 for $7.4bn. It claimed that Google had wrongfully profited
from copying pages of library files, some 11,500 lines of code, stating that
Google had taken a "shortcut at Oracle's expense". The jury, however, found
that this was not the case and accepted Google's defence of fair use. This
decision could open the door to 'free use' by software developers of APIs and
limited ability for their creators to prevent this.
At first instance, in deciding for Google,
the Judge ruled that APIs could never be the subject of copyright protection, a
finding that was later overturned on appeal. Google could, however, rely on the
fair use defence provided for in US copyright legislation. Although it would
now seem that APIs can secure protection as copyright works, this is somewhat
qualified by the fair use defence, which "sets a high bar for creativity before
deserving protection".
Fair use decisions, however, are made on a
case by case basis and cannot be relied upon in Ireland, where the relevant
legal principles are very different. Developers in Ireland or anywhere outside
the US, should seek expert advice before making use of and/or incorporating
third party APIs.
With Oracle vowing to appeal, this is one
program that the tech world will be watching!
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