The administration of US president Barack Obama has backed Oracle in a copyright suit against Google that many are warning could have a huge impact on the software industry.
Dating back to 2012, the case began when Oracle claimed that Google had infringed on its Java software during the creation of the Android mobile OS by writing its APIs (application programming interfaces) in a similar fashion to Java for the convenience of programmers.
Though the software company initially lost it later appealed successfully to a federal court, a decision that has been challenged by Google, who asked the Supreme Court, the highest in the US, to review the decision.
Google has argued that if the Supreme Court finds in Oracle’s favour it would make it far more difficult for programmers to write code compatible with common software or frameworks without first negotiating a software licence.
Backing the search engine up last year, 77 computer scientists asked the Supreme Court to reverse the appeals decision, arguing APIs and other interfacing tools should not be copyrightable.
That view has now been partially supported in a court filing by Donald Verrilli, solicitor general in the Obama administration, who argued that while the functions triggered by such APIs could not be copyrighted, the code itself could be.
Verrilli recommended that the Supreme Court not hear the case on its current grounds, but noted that the doctrine of "fair use", which allows for partial use of copyrighted materials, could be used in Google’s favour, which may lead to further litigation.
Commenting on the solicitor-general’s view, Google said: "While we’re disappointed, we look forward to supporting the clear language of the law and defending the concepts of interoperability that have traditionally contributed to innovation in the software industry."
