

 Google wins crucial API ruling, Oracle's case decimated - alsothings
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/google-wins-crucial-api-ruling-oracles-case-decimated/

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biot
You mean annihilated? The original meaning [0] of decimated meant a one-tenth
reduction leaving 90% remaining.

[0] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army)>

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ig1
Unsurprisingly the word is used in it's current sense rather than it's archaic
sense.

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biot
I guess I feel compelled to call it out for two reasons. First, because the
current usage is historically incorrect and I don't subscribe to the
philosophy that continued incorrect use of a word makes the incorrect popular
definition acceptable. Second, even with a modern interpretation, in reference
to Oracle it is still incorrect. The modern sense of decimated means "a large
proportion of" according to Oxford. This is vague. When talking about a
pandemic taking out a large proportion of a population, 40% would be pretty
damned large. Yet Oracle's case is now essentially nonexistent so merely
saying "a large proportion of" is insufficient and there are far better words
that convey how Oracle's case has been damaged.

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orthecreedence
So are you idealistically opposed to evolution of language by repurposing of
words? I've always found it an interesting debate...correctness vs popularity.
In this case, the root of the word (dec...ten) makes it obvious the "correct"
usage of the word as you point out (I also didn't know that that's what
"decimated" means, thanks for pointing it out). So I tend to agree with you
there.

On the other hand, when defining language itself, all I can really come up
with is "a generally agreed-upon form of communication." If enough people
agree that "decimated" means "destroyed" (as I thought it did), then doesn't
that in itself morph the language?

Then there's the big-picture view: the language is going to morph by general
consensus whether or not I agree with it.

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biot
For some words, I prefer to cling to the last vestiges of the archaic
definition until there's nothing left. And "decimated" is too cool of a word
to, er... annihilate the original meaning.

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saraid216
I think a solid case could be made that 10% of the original meaning is left.

If you really like the original meaning, then you should increase its usage in
as originally meant so that there's a reason for dictionaries to place the
original definition next to the ones that other people actually use in real
life.

~~~
biot
Like this? <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decimate>

All those in favor of me increasing its usage, please form a line.

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krschultz
' "The court's reliance on "interoperability" ignores the undisputed fact that
Google deliberately eliminated interoperability between Android and all other
Java platforms," the company said in a statement issued this afternoon.
"Google's implementation intentionally fragmented Java and broke the "write
once, run anywhere" promise." '

So Oracle's argument is now (or has been) 'it's copyright infrignment if you
copy part of it, but not if you copy all of it!'

Good luck with that.

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julianz
Ars has certainly changed it's tune after claiming that Oracle won a couple of
months ago... [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/jury-rules-
google...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/jury-rules-google-
violated-copyright-law-google-moves-for-mistrial/)

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sounds
Good discussion going on in the other submission:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4050490>

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X-Istence
Can Oracle appeal the decision and thus make it go on longer?

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ars
Of course they _can_ , the question is if they think it's financially worth it
to them.

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greesil
Yay sanity!

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bluedanieru
From the article:

>Some speculated an Oracle win could have scared programmers away from Java,
but that kind of ruminating is a moot point now.

I'm not so sure they had to win to make that happen. Bringing this case
forward in the first place was a great step in destroying the Java platform.
And it wasn't even their first step, though it's gotten more attention than
anything else so far.

Oracle _is_ killing Java. The metaphor of the goose that lays golden eggs is
terribly apt, here.

