Oracle revives legal battle over APIs with Google

Oracle is back in court again with the plagiarism case it lost in May last year against Google. Oracle had said at the time it would appeal and yesterday made good on its statement (See: Google wins court battle against Oracle over Java)

The legal battle over bits of Java code called APIs, had wound its way through various courts over the last decade and had now been revived by Oracle. Java is a programming language owned by and Oracle which Google has used in Android.

Oracle claims the jury did not get to hear all the facts it wanted to share in May, while ruling in favour of Google's ''fair use''  claim - that allowed parts of copyrighted material to be used without permission in some situations, according to Business Insider.

''Today's verdict that Android makes fair use of Java APIs represents a win for the Android ecosystem, for the Java programming community, and for software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products,'' a Google spokesperson had said in May.

Oracle's lawyers argue in the appeal filing, "Google started trial knowing a fact it kept secret from everyone else: It was days away from announcing that 'the full functionality of Android would soon be working on desktops and laptops, not just on smartphones and tablets.'"

''When a plagiarist takes the most recognizable portions of a novel and adapts them into a film, the plagiarist commits the 'classic' unfair use,'' Oracle wrote in their appeal referencing 'fair use' provisions in copyright law.

''Google's copying in this case is the software equivalent of this classic unfair use.''

The case is being closely followed by many in the tech industry, as they fear, that software developers would no longer be able to freely use software and share code as they do today, in case of a verdict in favour of Oracle.