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Google could owe Oracle billions for the Java code in Android
August 15, 2025
The ongoing dispute betweenOracle(the company that ownsJava) andGooglejust took a new turn. An appeals court today reversedthe previous 2016 decisionthat Google was in fair-use territory with using Java in Android, which now means that Google could owe Oracle billions of dollars. Will this case never end?
For those of you just tuning into the epic drama that is the Oracle vs. Google case, you’ve missed out on a lot. Here’s a quick refresh:
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Google did, in fact,violate Oracle’s copyrights in the Java platform. The case will now be pushed to a federal court in California to determine precisely how much Alphabet, Inc., Google’s parent company, should pay Oracle.
The case has long been a divisive one in technology circles. Since the fundamental purpose of copyright is to encourage innovation, many feel that the Java APIs used in Android is a perfect example of innovation in action: a team took the free Java APIs and made something entirely new.
Others feel that Java owns the APIs as copyrighted works, and the company must defend those copyrights. Sun co-founder Scott McNealy said that Java “is the foundation upon which our digital world is built and Google stole that foundation, used it to build Android, and destroyed Oracle’s market in the process.”
Regardless of which side of the issue you fall on, there’s no denying that this new turn in the case could have substantial ramifications for the technology industry. If Oracle can pick-and-choose which companies can or can’t use Java APIs, innovation will inevitably be stunted, if not just by the difficulty of using Java in the future, but of using any other system that is owned by a for-profit company but intended for free use.
What do you think? Are you happy with this decision, or does it make you worried about the future?
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