A jury of 10 ruled in favor of Google today in the long overdue battle against Oracle. Despite the fact that this is the second time Google has won the case in court, Oracle still plans on filing an appeal.
The dispute between the two companies occurred when Google used some Java programming to create Android, which has become one of the world's leading mobile software. To put this case in perspective some facts must be put in order.
Market Watch explains that Java is a programming language, which Oracle purchased when the company acquired Sun Microsystems. Google used APIs from Java to create Android. APIs are like blueprints for software.
According to WLBZ2, this case could have changed the way companies build software. Usually, codes are freely available. They are an "open source." However, if Oracle had won, codes would have become licensed and companies would most likely have to pay to use those codes.
Placing a license on codes would greatly affect how software is built. Java APIs, for instance, are used widely by many different software programmers, including big companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix.
Google commented on its court victory today stating in an e-mail: "Today's verdict that Android makes fair use of Java APIs represents a win for the Android ecosystem, for the Java programming community, and for software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products."
Oracle was seeking $9 billion in damages from Google. According to Dorian Daily, Oracle's General Counsel, the company still believes Google illegally used Java technology and will be filing an appeal to the Federal Circuit court.
Google has acknowledged that Android software does contain about 11,000 lines from Java. Still, the company does not believe that it violated any copyrights in using Java's software codes. Google argues that there are 15 million lines of code in Android and Java's codes only makeup 0.1 percent of the mobile software
