Politics is mixing up with technology. What do you think about having people that know zero on technology, deciding what to do here? https://apple.news/A0dtOLEhVS7WPWJRSXcH4Vg
There is no obvious answer to the Java IP question (which is why the supreme court is involved). As someone who worked at both Sun and Google, I see both side’s argument as possibly valid. Google got themselves into a mess for themselves by ripping off Java without a solid legal basis for doing so. Fair use is a very fuzzy legal concept and I think setting a precedent one way or the other by the supreme court will be helpful.
Also ex-Sun here. I agree there’s not a clear bright line; I wish Google hadn’t tried to be too-clever-by-half, but I also worry about the precedent should Oracle win.
They’re being asked to rule on copyright law, not software. They will have expert witnesses to educate them about the specifics.
The justices do have clerks that are reasonably knowledgeable and good at research, so I’m hoping it won’t be as bad as all that. There’s also copious expert testimony from the lower-court cases.