Appeals Court Overturns Google's Fair Use Victory For Java APIs (Techdirt)

[Hermit-The-Prog]

Techdirt reports that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has resurrected Oracle's copyright claim against Google for its use of the Java APIs in Android. "Honestly, the most concerning part of the whole thing is how much of a mess CAFC has made of the whole process. The court ruled correctly originally that APIs are not subject to copyright. CAFC threw that out and ordered the court to have a jury determine the fair use question. The jury found it to be fair use, and even though CAFC had ordered the issue be heard by a jury, it now says 'meh, we disagree with the jury.' That's... bizarre."

https://lwn.net/Articles/750228/

[Posting link to LWN summary because of the insight in the comments there. Follow link for original report at Techdirt.]

[In the past, the Supreme Court has chastised the Fed. Circuit court, which never saw a software patent it didn't like, for overreach. That might not continue to save us. This little issue could have an effect on every programmable or programmed device we use.]

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Ack!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. it's Bill the Cat kind of crazy

[DavidDvorkin]

3. It is.