

 Microsoft sides with Oracle against Google in Java appeal - snydeq
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2013/02_-_February/Microsoft_sides_with_Oracle_against_Google_in_Java_appeal/

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magicalist
This article is trying to make hay out of various tech wars because it makes a
nice narrative, but the key here is

 _A copy of Microsoft's legal brief was not immediately available on the
Federal Circuit's docket._

All we know is that they filed a friend of the court brief. Oracle's appeal
has a fairly diverse[1] spread of approaches to copyright and APIs in an
attempt to make their case. Microsoft's brief could be equally sprawling or
limited to a single aspect of Oracle's claims. We won't know until we can
actually _read it_.

[1] [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/on-appeal-
oracle-...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/on-appeal-oracle-
insists-googles-android-copied-key-java-code/)

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callumjones
Does Microsoft actually have a vested interest specifically in the use of Java
by Google, such as being upset that Google had free use of the Java APIs while
itself was scolded for implementing their own JVM?

Or is it basically "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"?

~~~
zmmmmm
Microsoft's interest lately is to conduct a kind psyops campaign against
Google. They seem to have identified that a huge problem for them is that
people really like Google _a lot_. So basically their strategy is to throw mud
at Google until people don't trust them or like them any more. So I would say
this fits into their campaign very neatly - if they can portray Google as
stealing technology from other companies then they can keep piecing together
this picture of "bad Google" that they want everyone to see.

~~~
kvb
I doubt that their amicus briefs are driven by PR considerations as opposed to
actual business concerns. How does a court filing that most of the public will
never see help them shift public perceptions of Google?

~~~
zmmmmm
Obviously the public are not going to read the court filing, the judges will.
And if the court accepts an appeal there will be years of bad PR for Google as
the world discusses how and whether Google "stole" the APIs for Android. Even
if Google is cleared there will still be smear on their name from people
perceiving that they are profiting from something they didn't really make
themselves.

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kirarev
kind of ridiculous that this even makes to court in the first place....

edit: Does anyone know much about the precedence (in court rulings) of
ownership of programming languages?

~~~
lostnet
I think you would have to separate out the different aspects of
implementation, syntax and publicity into things that could be patented,
copyrighted or trademarked.

You could look at Loglan vs Logban for strongly related issues on what you can
and can not copyright in language in general.

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z3phyr
If anytime I have to use a 'managed' language, I go for python and haskell.
Though, most of the time, I work on my video game renderer engine in evergreen
C/C++ , I am quite satisfied and productive :)

There is no use of C#, Java or VB for my work, and for good reasons ;)

~~~
berlinbrown
So you as the sole developer have decided that python and haskell are good for
you.

Well I am convinced.

Sure, you aren't dealing with 30 year old databases. Or 100s of developers
with millions of code. But that shouldn't matter.

~~~
Locke1689
The original post was off-topic and useless. There's no need to draw the
entire conversation off-topic.

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Egregore
As a good in my opinion (but unfortunatelly improbable) move from Google, will
be to switch from Java to Haxe in next versions, because it compiles both to
native Android and to Java and looks similar to Java, on the first view.

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camus
I guess they dont understand why they lost in court with Sun and why Google
did not with Oracle. And an android legal "takedown" would be very beneficial
to MSFT ,since they try to sell phoneOS too.

~~~
slurry
Microsoft had licensed Java code under a trade agreement and was found to have
violated the terms of that trade agreement.

Google had not licensed Java code, and was sued under patent law. Totally
different kind of case.

~~~
caf
Oracle made both patent and copyright claims against Google. The patent claims
were pretty bog-standard, but the copyright claim (the loss of which is what
Oracle is appealing) was quite... novel.

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jebblue
Considering where .Net and C# came from (as in heavily, heavily, heavily
influenced by) and we have to forget those pictures of Bill Gates chumming
around with then President Clinton riding around in golf carts; it seems clear
why Microsoft would take the stance they did..."Android is the best-selling
smartphone operating system around the world.".

