Another day, another chapter in the ongoing Oracle versus Google saga. A couple of weeks ago, we told you that Oracle had accused Google of blatantly taking their copyrighted Java code and placing it into Android’s source code. Well, Google is continuing to fight back, and has countered Oracle’s latest filing against them by both denying their claims, and arguing that they aren’t responsible even if evidence of infringement is found.
Google argues that any code that appears to be directly copied is so simplistic and should be permissible under the terms of fair use. They also claim that the patents at the heart of this whole issue are invalid, and that they don’t even apply to Android.
It’s growing ever more apparent that this case is going to drag on for quite some time. At this point, it’s really hard to predict what the outcome may be. If the ruling is not in Google’s failure, they may be required to pay some pretty hefty royalties to Oracle. Some have suggested Google should explore other language options, but given the fact that Android is so deeply rooted in Java, this is not a very practical suggestion. Stay tuned, this is gonna be a long one folks.
[via ArsTechnica]