The skirmish between Oracle and Google is escalating. Also, it appears that the trial is underway due to JAVA API copyright claim is buzzing with scrutiny.
ZD Net reports that, "The heavyweight legal match-up between Oracle and Google has already had some dramatic results. In 2014, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that copyright law applies to APIs, specifically, the 37 Java API packages Google used to develop the Android mobile operating system."
As both sectors face off in court again, it brings more serious disadvantages for Android, given the fact that 80 percent of the smartphone market is utilizing Android technology.
Oracle and Google return to San Francisco's U.S. District Court on Monday to determine whether Google's use of those copyrighted API packages amounted to "fair use." If not, the court will have to assess the damages, and if all goes Oracle's way, Google could owe the software giant a whopping sum, to the tune of $9 billion that far surpassing any other copyright verdict, as noted by the same post.
The case revolves around how Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, can and cannot be used, and APIs define how different types of code communicate to each other and if owners of those APIs can use copyright law to control how programming is done, there will be a sea change in industry practices and for many developers, especially of open source software, this will be a change for the worse, according to Ars Technica.
Moreover, "That is really going to create a radical shift in how software is developed worldwide," Mitch Stoltz, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who's been following the case, said in an interview. "If it requires permission each time APIs are used and code calls other code, then you've upended the economics of software.
It remains uncertain on how the skirmish between Oracle and Google would end. However, the outcomes would boil down to how the Java API Copyright claim as both sectors face the hurdles of rights and scrutiny.
