{"id":1387,"date":"2018-04-17T16:59:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T00:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2018-04-17T16:59:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T00:59:25","slug":"decision-in-oracle-v-google-fair-use-case-could-hinder-innovation-in-software-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2018\/04\/17\/decision-in-oracle-v-google-fair-use-case-could-hinder-innovation-in-software-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision in Oracle v. Google Fair Use Case Could Hinder Innovation in Software Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The technology industry was dealt a major setback when the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafc.uscourts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/opinions-orders\/17-1118.Opinion.3-26-2018.1.PDF\">Federal Circuit recently decided<\/a> in <i>Oracle v. Google <\/i>that Google\u2019s use of Java \u201cdeclaring code\u201d was not a fair use. The copyright doctrine of Fair Use impacts a developer\u2019s ability to learn from and improve on the work of others, which is a crucial part of software development. Because of this ruling, copyright law today is now at odds with how software is developed.*<\/p>\n<p>This is the second time in this eight year case that the Federal Circuit\u2019s ruling has diverged from how software is written. In 2014, the court decided that declaring code can be copyrighted, a ruling with which we disagreed. Last year we filed another <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/files\/2017\/05\/mozilla_brief_final.pdf\">amicus brief<\/a> in this case, advocating that Google\u2019s implementation of the APIs should be considered a fair use. In this recent decision, the court found that copying the Java declaring code was not a protected fair use of that code.<\/p>\n<p>We believe that open source software is vital to security, privacy, and open access to the internet. We also believe that <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2017\/05\/30\/fair-use-is-essential-to-software-development\/\">Fair Use is critical<\/a> to developing better, more secure, more private, and more open software because it allows developers to learn from each other and improve on existing work. Even the Mozilla Public License explicitly acknowledges that it \u201cis not intended to limit any rights\u201d under applicable copyright doctrines such as fair use.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Circuit\u2019s decision is a big step in the wrong direction. We hope Google appeals to the Supreme Court and that the Supreme Court sets us back on a better course.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>* When Google released its Android operating system, it incorporated some code from Sun Microsystem\u2019s Java APIs into the software. Google copied code in those APIs that merely names functions and performs other general housekeeping functions (called \u201cdeclaring code\u201d) but wrote all the substantive code (called \u201cimplementing code\u201d) from scratch. Software developers generally use declaring code to define the names, format, and organization ideas for certain functions, and implementing code to do the actual work (telling the program how to perform the functions). Developers specifically rely on \u201cdeclaring code\u201d to enable their own programs to interact with other software, resulting in code that is efficient and easy for others to use. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The technology industry was dealt a major setback when the Federal Circuit recently decided in Oracle v. Google that Google\u2019s use of Java \u201cdeclaring code\u201d was not a fair use. &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2018\/04\/17\/decision-in-oracle-v-google-fair-use-case-could-hinder-innovation-in-software-development\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":711,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53770,51],"tags":[],"coauthors":[311447],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Decision in Oracle v. Google Fair Use Case Could Hinder Innovation in Software Development - Open Policy &amp; Advocacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2018\/04\/17\/decision-in-oracle-v-google-fair-use-case-could-hinder-innovation-in-software-development\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Urmika Devi Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2018\/04\/17\/decision-in-oracle-v-google-fair-use-case-could-hinder-innovation-in-software-development\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2018\/04\/17\/decision-in-oracle-v-google-fair-use-case-could-hinder-innovation-in-software-development\/\",\"name\":\"Decision in Oracle v. 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