The Java copyright dispute between Google and Oracle is almost settled, with Google paying Oracle $8.8 billion for using Oracle’s Java copyright code on its Android operating system.
On March 27, the U.S. Federal Circuit court ruled that Google violated Oracle’s copyright by using a lot of Java code on Android. The copyright battle began in 2010, when Oracle sued Alphabet for at least $8.8 billion. Google was disappointed and said it would take further steps to find other solutions.
The dispute over code rights has divided silicon Valley’s software industry for years. One group of people developed non-functional infrastructure code, and another used it to develop applications, arguing that copyright law should make the use of such infrastructure an exception.
Mark Schonfeld of Burns&Levinson, a law firm in Boston, says: “It’s a big decision for the software industry whether to make code use an exception to copyright. I think that’s something that should be decided by the Supreme Court, because it’s a very controversial decision that the Federal Circuit made.”
“The Federal Circuit has upheld a fundamental principle of copyright law and determined that Google violated copyright law,” Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley said in a statement. The decision was made to protect the original authors from their rights being violated.
Google and its supporters disputed the ruling, arguing that it would hamper the development of new software and make it more expensive for users to use it.
In a statement, Google said, “The court has overturned the jury’s view that Java should be open and free for everyone to use. Such rulings only increase the cost to users of the software.”
Oracle says that if you just use Java to develop desktop or mobile applications, it’s free. But if you’re competing platforms with Java development, or embedding it into electronic devices, there are limitations.
The Federal Circuit found that even though Android does not charge users licensing fees, it does not mean that Google does not benefit commercially from the Java API, which has generated more than $42 billion in advertising revenue for Google.
Oracle is seeking more than $8.8 billion in damages, from which Google says it received little benefit. Ping Hu, of Mirick O ‘Connell, a Boston law firm, thinks the dispute may reveal more about how much Google benefits from Android, which is free. “Oracle has won the battle, but the war is not over,” he said.
Oracle alleges that Google, in its rush to develop a mobile operating system in the mid-2000s, used key copyrighted parts of Java technology without paying any royalties.
Google countered that Oracle was simply jealous because it had done something Oracle could not — developed a popular, free mobile operating system. Google says it uses only a fraction of Oracle’s code, which is just enough for Android developers to build applications in Java.
In 2016, a federal jury in California sided with Google, finding that the company’s actions were “just” and should be considered an exception to copyright law, but the Federal Circuit court rejected that assertion in its final ruling.
“There is no justification for using copyrighted works for the same purpose and using them to create platforms that compete with the original authors,” the court said.
Google is hoping that the federal Circuit will reconsider the ruling and that they can appeal it to the Supreme Court, which is exactly what Google supporters want.
In 2014, the Supreme Court declined to review a proposal by the Federal Circuit in which it said the code used by Google was copyrighted. Meredith Rose, a policy consultant at Public Knowledge, said the federal Circuit’s ruling broke “unspoken rules” that have operated in the software industry for decades.
“This is a devastating blow to competition, openness, and growth in the technology industry,” Rose said in a statement. “It also means higher use costs, fewer choices, and worse product experiences for software users.”
Java is a programming language introduced by Sun Microsystems in the mid-1990s. Oracle bought Sun in January 2010 for $7.4 billion. Eight months later, Oracle filed a copyright lawsuit against Google.