Slashdot Mirror
Judge Blasts Oracle's Attempt To Overturn Pro-Google Jury Verdict (arstechnica.com)
Joe Mullin, reporting for Ars Technica: Google successfully made its case to a jury last month that its use of Java APIs in Android was "fair use," and the verdict rejected Oracle's claim that the mobile system infringed its copyrights. After Google argued its case, though, Oracle filed a motion arguing that the judge should decide as a matter of law that fair use didn't cover it. In the wake of the jury's pro-Google verdict, Oracle's motion was its last hope of a trial victory. It didn't happen; US District Judge William Alsup shot down the motion on Wednesday. The same order also denied Google's motion making similar arguments, filed at the close of trial but before the jury's verdict. Alsup's stinging order [PDF], which rejects Oracle's argument [PDF] on every front, hardly comes as a surprise. But the document provides the first insights as to what Oracle might bring up in an appeal proceeding, which the company has said it will pursue. In the order, Alsup defends how he ran the trial. The evidence and instructions presented to the jury were a mix of mandates from the appeals court, which overruled Alsup on the key issue of API copyrightability, and modifications urged by both sides' lawyers.
I've never heard of a stupider idea. How about I think about all the functionality that could be implemented by someone somewhere, then write these extremely easy one line expectations. I'll make a huge number of them as well such that all the arguments you'd expect to pass in for that type of functionality are covered.
Now that I've claimed copyright, the ability of a random person to use program a computer to do something useful has been taken away from them. That, and I barely had to do any actual work. The functionality hasn't even been implemented. Isn't the US legal system great?