Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday March 13 2020, @04:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the SELECT-items-FROM-cookware-WHERE-color='black'; dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

More than a decade ago, Google re-implemented the Java programming language as part of its new Android mobile operating system. Oracle, the owner of Java, then sued Google for copyright infringement in 2010. Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this epic copyright case that will have huge implications for the entire software industry—and that could cost Google billions of dollars.

Google says it has done nothing wrong. Copyright law specifically excludes "systems" and "methods of operation" from copyright protection. Google argues that the aspects of Java it copied—function names, argument types, and so forth—fit squarely into these exceptions. Google also argues that copyright's fair use doctrine allows for this kind of copying.

The case is being closely watched by the software industry. Companies like Microsoft and IBM have warned that Oracle's stance could create chaos for the industry. They argue that making this kind of copying illegal would not only create legal headaches for a lot of software companies—it would be bad for customers, too.

Software companies copy software interfaces—known in industry jargon as application programming interfaces (APIs)—of their competitors' products all the time. This allows competing software products to be interoperable so that a customer can take software designed to work on one platform and re-use it on another. That means lower switching costs for customers. It also means lower barriers for entry for software startups, since it's easier to sell a new product if it's compatible with a software product that customers already know and trust.

If anyone should understand the importance of such copying, it's Oracle. After all, Oracle got its start in the 1970s selling a database product based on the then-new structured query language (SQL). SQL was invented by IBM. And Oracle doesn't seem to have gotten a license to use it.

If Oracle wins its legal battle, one ironic result will be to make the software industry less hospitable to future startups like Oracle. Incumbent software companies would have a greater ability to lock customers into their own proprietary standards. Startups wouldn't be allowed to do what Oracle did four decades ago: make its product compatible with an established competitor, then make that interoperability a selling point.

[...]Despite the lack of a licensing deal, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz was enthusiastic when Google ultimately announced that Android would be based on Java.

"I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of others from Sun in offering my heartfelt congratulations to Google on the announcement of their new Java/Linux phone platform, Android," Schwartz wrote.

But the company's tune changed after the Oracle acquisition. As Android adoption soared, Sun's new owners saw the opportunity to get billions of dollars out of Google. Oracle sued Google shortly after its acquisition of Sun closed.

-- submitted from IRC

Previously:
A Contrary View on API Copyrights
Amazon Unhooks its Last Oracle Database, Nothing Breaks and Life Goes On
Top Oracle Lawyer Attempting to Gaslight Entire Software Community: Insists APIs are Executable
Should an API be Copyrightable?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday March 13 2020, @08:58AM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 13 2020, @08:58AM (#970608) Journal

    You do realize that IBM predates what today's generation thinks of as "tech". International Business Machine, which predated any recognizable as a modern day computing. Simple things, like cash registers, starting way back in 1880.

    https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/decade_1880.html [ibm.com]

    Although IBM was incorporated in the state of New York on June 16, 1911 as the Computing- Tabulating- Recording Company (C-T-R), its origins can be traced back to developments at the close of the 19th century. For example, the first dial recorder was invented by Dr. Alexander Dey in 1888, and Dey's business became one of the building blocks of C-T-R. Similarly, the Bundy Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1889 as the first time recording company in the world, and it, too, later became a key component of C-T-R

    A U.S. government agency requirement late in the 19th century led directly the development of one of the company's principal lines of business. During the height of the Industrial Revolution, when the United States was receiving waves of new immigration, the U.S. Census Bureau recognized that its traditional counting methods would be inadequate for measuring the expanding population. As a result, the Bureau sponsored a contest to find a more efficient means of tabulating census data. The winner was Herman Hollerith, son of a German immigrant and Census Bureau statistician, whose Punch Card Tabulating Machine used an electric current to sense holes in punched cards and keep a running total of data. Capitalizing on his success, Hollerith formed the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Friday March 13 2020, @06:33PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 13 2020, @06:33PM (#970814) Journal

    In about, oh, 1985 ish, I heard on NPR a book review (while working on a Lisa computer). The book was: "Big Blue: IBM's Use and Abuse of Power"

    Years later, in about 1993, I saw that book in a discount bin at a mall bookstore and picked it up.

    It was a very interesting read.

    I suddenly realized that just about every dirty trick IBM had ever used was exactly the same playbook Microsoft was following. It was astonishing.

    I'll also mention that the book goes into IBM's origins and history. Another well known cash register company would come out with a new model, and (predecessor to IBM) would be tearing it apart as soon as they could get their hands on it.

    A major lesson in the book. The Monopoly is All That Matters! Do anything to preserve the monopoly. Even criminal activity. What will happen? You'll have to pay huge fines? (corporations are people too!) So what? As long as you've got the monopoly you've got the goose that lays golden eggs. You can charge whatever prices you want. Your customers will have to pay. Just ensure that there are no competitors that can ever effectively enter the market.

    Sell at a loss. New upstart introduces an inexpensive computer (because price is not a "monopoly rent" price). So introduce your own new model at half of their price. Say, only $15,000. (I could be fuzzy on that memory.) This will put them out of business. You can afford to sell it at a gigantic loss. Your business is financed by monopoly profits on other models and product lines. Competitor dies. Customers of your low end model soon realize that they need a memory upgrade. It only had just barely enough memory to be useful. How much is the memory upgrade? Quite expensive! Maybe almost half the cost of the original purchase. And other ongoing supporting items are also prices to make up for the initial bargain sale price.

    Segment your market. Don't sell one great and upgradeable expandable computer. Computers are not supposed to be general purpose machines that can be programmed to do anything! Instead have different specialized models. Start by segmenting science from business computers. Then subdivide those product lines into Home Basic, Professional Edition, Enterprise Edition, Extra Whitening, Tartar Control, Baking Soda + Tartar Control, Extra Whitening with Peroxide, Enamel Builder, etc.

    If a competitor emerges in a certain market segment, say a certain sized scientific computer, then you can introduce your sold-at-a-loss computer financed by raising prices in the other segments that you have monopoly control over.

    Never let a market emerge for used machines. Used machines at cheap prices are the enemy. Solution: only lease machines, never sell them. When forced to sell them by the evil government regulators, then buy them back to try to prevent a viable second hand market. After all you've got bucketloads of monopoly money extracted from captive customers.

    There was a lot more. A memorable chapter in the book was: Reach Out And Crush Someone. You can guess what other industry was using lots of electronics to make connections, keep detailed billing records, and was starting to build their own computers.

    The book was eye opening. And was astonishing to watch over the 1990s how Microsoft appeared to copy so many tactics from it. Almost as if it were a playbook.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by dry on Saturday March 14 2020, @04:37AM (1 child)

      by dry (223) on Saturday March 14 2020, @04:37AM (#971032) Journal

      Some differences with IBM. They actually cared about their employees, at least till the mid-late '90's and when they got busted for anti-trust, they actually tried to follow the agreement they came to with the Justice department, which is why they outsourced DOS to MS.
      I'm writing this on an IBM operating system and at least it was designed to inter-operate with other operating systems, whether a competitor or not. Built to dual boot with most anything, mostly agnostic to things like EOL and directory separators for example.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 16 2020, @02:01PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 16 2020, @02:01PM (#971871) Journal

        It's not hard to imagine that companies rolling in bucketloads of cash "care" about their employees. Especially those who help maintain and extend the monopoly. Once hard times hit, their "care" seems to change.

        My view of IBM isn't all negative. After IBM became somewhat irrelevant in the PC space in the 90's, by about 2000 IBM began to make big investments in Linux. Also the SCO vs IBM lawsuit in March 2003 (which is still going to this very day but stuck in some appeal limbo) it was IBM who's defense of their own actions also was very helpful to Linux in general. SCO had the stupidity to sue IBM, yes IBM, as their first target.

        Before the end of the 80's I already perceived Microsoft, not IBM, to be the evil monopolist that would own everyone's soul and have complete world domination.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.