On May 26, 2016, a jury returned a verdict in favor of Google in its battle against Oracle.  Oracle brought suit claiming that Google infringed  by using Java application product interface (API) in Android’s mobile operating system.  Google argued that its use of the code in the Android system, which relies partly on Java (an open source code that was acquired…

  As you may have heard, Google won a major fair use victory yesterday against Oracle involving Google’s implementation of certain Application Program Interfaces (APIs) of the Java programming language in its popular Android mobile operating system. The case has been running for six years, has important consequences for software and innovation, and featured a number of twists and turns….

Washington — A federal jury’s verdict today in a complicated fair use case is seen as a step in favor of interoperability – a principle that is key to the tech industry. The jury correctly found that Google’s use of the Java programming language in its Android phones was protected by “fair use.” This litigation has been ongoing for several…

Open Internet Threatened At USCO Roundtables. InfoWorld writes on the continuing fallout from May’s Copyright Office Section 512 roundtables in the May 20 article DMCA “reform” harbors return of SOPA. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Legal Director Corynne McSherry defends Section 512 against the entertainment industry’s attack, saying, “The safe harbors were supposed to give rights holders streamlined tools to police…

*Guest post by Caile Morris, ARL Law & Policy Fellow* On March 15, 2016, the California Assembly amended a Bill, AB-2880, dealing with state intellectual property. Introduced by Assemblyman Mark Stone in late February, the main goal of AB-2880 is to grant local and state governments the authority to create, hold, and exert intellectual property rights. The federal government is…

This post was originally published on the Stanford University Center for Internet and Society blog. Annemarie Bridy is a Professor of Law at the University of Idaho College of Law, an Affiliate Scholar at Stanford University Center for Internet and Society, and an Affiliate Fellow for the Yale Law School Information Society Project. Jonathan Taplin’s op-ed (Do You Love Music? Silicon Valley Doesn’t) in the…

Tech Groups And Public Urge Copyright Office To Preserve DMCA Safe Harbor Status Quo. After last week’s Copyright Office DMCA roundtables in California, a number of outlets noted that “discussion was heavily skewed in favor of copyright owners.” Jeff Lyon with Fight for the Future, a non-profit organization that encouraged nearly 10,000 comments from Internet users in favor of protecting…

When DisCo last covered the Oracle v. Google copyright infringement case, it was in the aftermath of the Federal Circuit’s ill-considered conclusion that software methods received copyright protection. I specifically criticized the Solicitor General’s decision to wave the Supreme Court off the case, advice that the Court followed.  Now the case has been sent back to the district court, which is…

  Public Knowledge balanced copyright advocates Raza Panjwani and John Bergmayer will appear at public roundtable discussions May 18-20 to discuss software-enabled consumer devices (May 18) and the DMCA’s Section 1201 anticircumvention provision (May 19-20) at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The U.S. Copyright Office is hosting these public roundtables as it studies how various provisions of copyright…

Google Vs. Oracle Trial Focuses On Fair Use, Could Shape Future Of Software Innovation.  Fortune provides a Q&A guide to the ongoing Google/Oracle copyright trial, which could determine the future of fair use of unlicensed APIs (application program interfaces)–the “set of instructions that allow one type of software talk to another.” Oracle is suing Google for using Oracle-owned APIs without…