On May 9, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
reversed Judge Alsup's 2012 ruling that Oracle wasn't entitled to
copyright control for a large portion of the Java API, copies of which
Oracle alleged appeared in Google's Android development libraries.
Judge Alsup's decision originally clarified Google's right to continue
unabated in its distribution and development of the Android
development libraries that were similar to Java's. The Federal Circuit
has now ruled in Oracle's favor, which has reintroduced confusion and
uncertainty on this issue. The case is now remanded back to the
district court to determine whether or not Google will succeed in
using a "fair use" defense regarding the alleged copyright
infringement.
In May 2012, the Jury of the District Court had issued a partial
verdict and we were left waiting for Alsup's verdict on the remainder
of the case. At the time, the FSF issued the following
statement:
Were it grounded in reality, Oracle's claim that copyright law gives
them proprietary control over any software that uses a particular
functional API would be terrible for free software and programmers
everywhere. It is an unethical and greedy interpretation created
with the express purpose of subjugating as many computer users as
possible, and is particularly bad in this context because it comes
at a time when the sun has barely set on the free software
community's celebration of Java as a language newly suitable for use
in the free world. Fortunately, the claim is not yet reality, and we
hope Judge Alsup will keep it that way.
The situation then is substantially similar to the situation today.
The key difference is that some of Google's affirmative defenses to
claim non-infringement have been eliminated by this new ruling. The
FSF now sincerely hopes for the next best thing to Alsup's original
ruling: that Google is successful in its fair use defense.
Notwithstanding our support of Google's fair use defense, the
FSF urges caution to all prospective Android users. Even though the
core of the Android system is free, every Android device sold comes
pre-loaded with a variety of proprietary applications and proprietary
hardware drivers. The FSF encourages users to support the
development of Replicant, a distribution of Android that is
100% free software. The FSF also encourages users of any Android-based
system to install F-Droid, a free replacement for the Google Play
app that allows users to browse, install, and receive updates from a
repository of free software Android apps. Replicant uses F-Droid as
its default repository.
Disclosure: Google currently donates to the FSF and Oracle has donated to the FSF in the past.
About the Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and
use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating
system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free
software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and
political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information
about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
