A decade-long battle over copied code in Google’s Android operating system has ended in the US Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed with Google against Oracle in a long-running copyright dispute over the software used in Android, the mobile operating system.
Oracle, another tech giant, had sued Google in 2010 for copyright infringement over what it said was copied computer code by Google Programmers.
Android Operating System is now used in an estimated 70% of global smartphones, and damages could have run into the billions.
But the Supreme Court let Google off the hook, overturning a lower court’s decision it had infringed copyright.
The court ruled 6-2 in favor of Google.
At issue was whether Google’s use of Oracle’s Java API – a widely-used “building block” for programmers – counted as “fair use” under US copyright law
If it was, the fact that Google was accused of copying more than 11,000 lines of code would not matter.
According to Justice Stephen Breyer, in his written opinion, said that “to allow enforcement of Oracle’s copyright here would risk harm to the public”.
So many programmers across the world used and had deep knowledge of Oracle’s building blocks that such a move would turn computer code into “a lock limiting the future creativity of new programs”.
“Oracle alone would hold the key,” he warned.
But the judges disagreed on how to apply traditional copyright law to computer code.
Justice Breyer, writing for the majority, acknowledged that it is “difficult to apply traditional copyright concepts in that technological world”.
Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president for global affairs, said in a post on Twitter after the ruling went in favor of Google that “Today’s Supreme Court decision in Google v. Oracle is a big win for innovation, interoperability & computing.”
“Thanks to the country’s leading innovators, software engineers & copyright scholars for their support,” Walker wrote on his twitter timeline.
In a statement, Oracle mentioned that “the Google platform just got bigger and market power greater. The barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower.”
According to Oracle “They stole Java and spent a decade litigating as only a monopolist can. This behavior is exactly why regulatory authorities around the world and in the United States are examining Google’s business practices,”
