Google to Pay 1 Billion USD to ORACLE

Google loses copyright battle on Java and Android, as per the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Google violated copyright laws when it used Oracle’s open-source Java software to build the Android platform in 2009. The judgement has come after eight trying years, Google is now on the losing end of a legal battle with Oracle, who has accused the former of stealing proprietary.

Absolutely, there is no doubt on Programming languages like Python, C, Java and C++ are used to power the technology we use every day. If you see Java, it can run on many devices and If you have an Android phone, all of your apps are running Java. Big data technologies are using Java as their language of choice because of its excellent capabilities of compiling and organizing data.

Now a question comes who owns the data, in fact the data belongs to the user’s. Google and Facebook dominate the harvesting of user data. The theory behind this penalty to Google is ,before making the Android platform ready Google's mistake of not taking approval from Sun Microsystems (a company of Oracle) which is compatible with Java apps . The case has run for 8 years long lawsuit in a Washington-based appeals court has ruled against Google for unlawfully using APIs from Oracle's Java language at the time of developing Android. It is to be noted that Android has generated more than 42 billion USD in advertising revenue since its inception.

Oracle first brought its case against Google in 2010, claiming that Android infringes two patents that Oracle holds on its Java software, a ubiquitous programming language powering everything from phones to websites. Trust never loses, when one registered in patents in USA and earlier in 2012, a district court jury had ruled in favour of Google, stating the use of Java code came under fair use but the verdict got overturned by the appeals court in 2014 when the Federal Circuit sent the case back for another jury trial to determine fair use. The recent judgement came reverses the district court yet again and sends the case back for a third trial to determine the amount of damages to be paid by Google.

According to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Google’s use of Java APIs in the development of Android operating system is a violation of copyright law as it was used for commercial use. “The fact that Android is free of charge does not make Google’s use of the Java API packages non-commercial, the three bench judge of Federal Circuit panel in Washington penned in the order.

Oracle contends that even though Java was available free of cost to write applications, using it to make a competing platform was not permitted and infringes upon two patents that the company holds on Java. “The Federal Circuit’s opinion upholds fundamental principles of copyright law and makes clear that Google violated the law. This decision protects creators and consumers from the unlawful abuse of their rights, said Dorian Daley, Oracle's General Counsel in a statement.

Google said in a statement after hearing the order, we are disappointed the court reversed the jury finding that Java is open and free for everyone. This type of ruling will make apps and online services more expensive for users.

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