Oracle vs. Google: Who owns the Java APIs?
What if you owned the copyright on the French language? Or Swahili? That's essentially the claim Oracle is making when it says it owns the copyright to the Java language and its associated APIs. If Oracle gets its way, it could change software development forever.
The issue looks to be decided in the lawsuit between Oracle and Google, which began with testimony in a San Francisco courtroom this week. The trial is expected to last up to 10 weeks.
Oracle sued Google in 2010 over the nonstandard implementation of the Java platform in the search giant's Android mobile OS. Android uses its own class library that's a subset of Java's. It's also powered by Dalvik, a unique virtual machine that uses its own binary format rather than standard Java bytecode.
