Google v Oracle: SCOTUS to review key software copyright ruling
The US Supreme Court will review a controversial ruling that held that Google infringed copyright by using the Java software script in its Android operating system.
The long-running dispute between Google and Oracle Corporation, the owners of Java script, centres on whether so-called application software interfaces (APIs) can be protected by copyright.
APIs make it easier for programmers to develop software compatible with scripts such as Java. Traditionally, APIs were not considered to infringe copyright, until a US federal court’s ruling in Google v Oracle.
Oracle had received the backing of the US government, which urged the Supreme Court to deny Google’s petition for certiorari.
According to the US solicitor general Noel Francisco, who filed an amicus brief in September on behalf of the US government, the copyrightability of APIs did not warrant review.
Google argues that use of a software interface in the context of creating a new computer program constitutes fair use.
A jury at the US District Court for the Northern District of California initially agreed, ruling that APIs were not subject to copyright protection.
But that judgment was ultimately overturned when the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit revived the case last March, overturning the district court’s verdict.
The appeals court stated that APIs should be considered in the same way “one would analyse copyrightability or fair use for a work of entertainment such as a book or screenplay”.
Google has now successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari, after receiving the backing of groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
In an amicus brief filed in February, the EFF said that the Federal Circuit’s approach was “both simplistic and erroneous”.
According to the EFF, the Federal Circuit’s judgment, if not overturned, would be a “disaster for innovation in computer software”.
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