The long raging legal dispute between Oracle and Google has finally reached a California courtroom. This feud has lasted so long, like the Hatfields and McCoys, that many have likely forgotten the original crux of the disagreement. After the presiding judge tried one last time to encourage a settlement, both parties favored a trial.
On the surface, this case will decide whether Google's Android operating system violates patents and copyrights owned by Oracle for its Java programming language. However straightforward this issue may at first appear, there is a more complex and far reaching issue that will generate long-term effects.
A more intriguing question than simple copyright infringement has emerged: Can a company legally copyright a computer programming language, particularly one available to the open-source community? The presiding judge instructed both sides to "clarify" their respective positions on whether programming languages are copyrightable. They did so shortly before beginning opening testimony on April 16, 2012.
Google takes the position that programming languages are not available for copyright protection. Oracle believes the opposite. Some observers believe that the legal "intricacies" are beyond complex, bordering on the impossible. This case has now gone far beyond the question whether Google employed Java in its Android op system by infringing on a copyright owned by Oracle. It has become a mandate for a proper legal definition of a computer language.
Google will argue that Oracle is wrong in claiming a copyright over an "idea rather than its expression." Conversely, Oracle believes Google "improperly" used Java APIs to complete its Android mobile operating system. Sun Microsystems created Java and released it to the open-source universe.
When Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems in 2010, all of Sun's Java patents became Oracle's. Google did use Java to create Android, but never obtained a valid license. Oracle sued Google for copyright infringement. Google responds that prevailing law prohibits copyright protection for an "idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery."
The court's decision will have far reaching effects on future copyrights, if any, for yet-to-be-developed computer programming languages. The industry will follow this trial's progress closely.
Source: CNET, "Copyright conundrum in Oracle-Google case: Is a computer language fair game?" Charles Cooper, April 17, 2012
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