Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
I can't write a book with the characters Captain Kirk, Mr Spock who explore the universe in a spaceship named the enterprise. Even if "the story" is my original implementation of the universe defined by Star Trek. Yes, people write fan fiction, but that too is copyright infringement that authors/publishers may ignore or promote or stop as is their choice.
Why anyone would think that you could just write your own implementation of another companies product in such a way that it's customers could switch to your implementation with no change whatsoever....that's copyright infringement.
Google knew this when they came out with Android and simply took a chance rather than sign up for a license. I hope they get hammered.
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Well, strictly speaking, in the coding world it *isn't* a copyright violation to write code that duplicates the function of somebody else's code as long as the coders do it 100.000% independently without referring to the original code.
Google's problem is their source code contained chunks of Java documentation, which proved their coders had used JAVA code in crafting their clone. That is why the case came down to the question of fair use.
The issue isn't that they cloned the APIs but *how* they cloned the APIs.
So yes, they cut corners and ran roughshod over other people's IP.
(And not just Oracle.)
And now the bill is due.