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Judge to Oracle: A High Schooler Could Write rangeCheck
mikejuk writes with an update on the Oracle vs Google Trial. From the article: "One month into the Oracle v Google trial, Judge William Alsup has revealed that he has, and still does, write code. Will this affect the outcome? I think so! After trying to establish that the nine lines in rangeCheck that were copied saved Google time in getting Android to market the lawyer making the case is interrupted by the judge which indicates he at least does understand how straightforward it would be to program rangeCheck from scratch: 'rangeCheck! All it does is make sure the numbers you're inputting are within a range, and gives them some sort of exceptional treatment. That witness, when he said a high school student could do it — ' And the lawyer reveals he doesn't: 'I'm not an expert on Java — this is my second case on Java, but I'm not an expert, and I probably couldn't program that in six months.' Perhaps every judge should be a coding judge — it must make the law seem a lot simpler..."
From yesterday; the Oracle lawyer was attempting to argue that Google profited by stealing rangeCheck since it allowed them to get to market faster than they would have had they wrote it from scratch. Groklaw, continuing its detailed coverage as always, has the motions filed today.
From yesterday; the Oracle lawyer was attempting to argue that Google profited by stealing rangeCheck since it allowed them to get to market faster than they would have had they wrote it from scratch.
Because 5 seconds make all the difference.
So they have 1 of the Virtues of truly great programmers.
And you wrote that comment without once referring to PHP. Bravo!
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Hello. By posting this, you have violated the copyrights of my company. Because of this, and the profits you will no doubt receive from this theft, we demand reparations of the sum of $1,250,000.51.
Please await your court summons in the mail.
Please have a pleasant day!
Ok, let's have a contest. Gather a bunch of high schoolers who have some idea how to program in Java, give them the spec for rangeCheck, and see how long it takes them to write it. The winner takes the prize equal to the damages Oracle is asking for. Bonus points if completed in less than 15 minutes.
You idiot! You just caused $2.6bn of harm to Oracle!
A truly exceptional lawyer.
Calm down Grandpa, go take a nap. We all know you had to fight the dinosaurs to get to the mainframe and make punch cards out of leaves of now long extinct flora. These days though this really is the sort of thing a little kids has access too, not everyone on earth can always remember what life was like at such a primitive time.
That "Oracle lawyer" is none other than David Boies.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
To tell you the true, this gives us a clear hint about Oracle's future.
SCO did exactly the same thing in the past - but, honestly, I think SCO's lawyers did a better job.
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
And the other half coulda banged out the code in binary using a toy xylaphone in pre-school.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
It doesn't really matter who decompiled the files. The point is that they were decompiled and copied.
If I hire you to go buy me a car and you do so I pay you for it. If it turns out you stole the car, should I get to keep it?
That also leaves the question of whether that contractor, or other contractors had violated Sun/Oracle copyrights in less obvious ways.
You have the analogy all messed up. Google has already stopped using this code, so in your analogy they've already stopped using the car and given it up.
Instead, what happened was Google hired Noser to buy them a car, and in the contract specified that the Noser was absolutely not allowed to steal the car. Noser stole it anyway, and when Google found out they stopped using it. Later, Google was sued by Oracle, who didn't actually own the car when it was stolen but bought it later. This suit wasn't to stop Google from using the car any longer, but to seek billions in damages for misuse of the car during a time that Google thought they owned it (due to deception by Noser) when Oracle didn't actually own it, either.*
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
I know right.
Why I bet that half of the population of America is below average even.
You sir, are incorrect. By copying this software that would have taken a lawyer 6 months to write, they were able to gain an unfair 32 seconds on the rightful coder Oracle.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
I have the feeling that the judge may even order them run though a meat grinder before returning them to Oracle on said platter.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
Sort of like wml. Before it could fix bayonets and form a defensive square Moore's cavalry had ridden right over it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I've never heard of the subtroutine concept! What's that, when a bigger fish calls a smaller fish to perform a function required by the bigger fish?
ummm...I wouldn't submit this for peer review just yet.