Supreme Court Sides With Google Over Oracle in Multibillion-Dollar Copyright Battle -- 3rd Update
April 05 2021 - 1:07PM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for Alphabet
Inc.'s Google in a multibillion-dollar copyright battle with Oracle
Corp. over how it built its Android smartphone-operating
system.
The court, in a 6-2 opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, threw out
a lower-court ruling for Oracle that said Google's Android
infringed its copyrights on the Java software platform. The high
court said Google's copying of some Java API code was fair use.
APIs, or application programming interfaces, are prewritten
packages of computer code that allow programs, websites or apps to
talk to one another.
"Google's copying did not violate the copyright law," Justice
Breyer wrote.
Oracle acquired the Java technology when it bought Sun
Microsystems Inc. in 2010.
Oracle accused Google of illegally copying more than 11,000
lines of Java API code to develop Android, which runs more than two
billion mobile devices world-wide.
Oracle previously sought as much as $9 billion in damages from
Google.
"The Google platform just got bigger and market power greater.
The barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower,"
Oracle said in a statement. "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."
Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer and senior vice
president for global affairs, said the ruling "is a victory for
consumers, interoperability, and computer science. The decision
gives legal certainty to the next generation of developers whose
new products and services will benefit consumers."
The decade-old case had been closely watched in tech circles and
beyond. Businesses that rely heavily on copyright protections,
including in the movie, music and publishing industries, filed
legal briefs supporting Oracle and expressing concerns about
Google's claims to fair use of content created by others.
Software makers including Microsoft Corp. and a leading
association of internet companies supported Google, arguing
copyright law needed to allow some fair use of computer programs to
promote follow-on technologies and interoperability among
programs.
The Supreme Court sidestepped the potentially broadest legal
issue in the case: whether API code was eligible for copyright
protection at all.
"Given the rapidly changing technological, economic, and
business-related circumstances, we believe we should not answer
more than is necessary to resolve the parties' dispute," Justice
Breyer wrote for the court.
So, the court assumed Oracle's Java API was eligible for
copyright protection, but then went on to say that Google had the
better argument on the doctrine of fair use, a concept designed to
prevent copyrights from stifling the development of new products
and services.
"We reach the conclusion that in this case, where Google
reimplemented a user interface, taking only what was needed to
allow users to put their accrued talents to work in a new and
transformative program, Google's copying of the Sun Java API was a
fair use of that material as a matter of law," Justice Breyer
wrote.
The court said Google's copying amounted to just 0.4% of the
2.86 million lines of Java API computer code. Justice Breyer
compared the code at issue to "a gas pedal in a car that tells the
car to move faster or the QWERTY keyboard on a typewriter that
calls up a certain letter when you press a particular key."
Joining the majority opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts and
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Brett
Kavanaugh.
In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel
Alito, said Google's copyright "was anything but fair."
The dissenters said Oracle spent years developing a programming
library that attracted software developers and noted that Google's
copying came after the two sides couldn't agree on licensing terms.
Google's move also eventually upended the value of deals Oracle had
struck with Amazon.com Inc. and others, the dissenters said.
"Google decimated Oracle's market and created a mobile operating
system now in over 2.5 billion actively used devices, earning tens
of billions of dollars every year," Justice Thomas wrote.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett didn't participate in the case, which
was argued before she joined the court.
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 05, 2021 12:52 ET (16:52 GMT)
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