Oracle v. Google Oral Argumentmajor league copyright lawyering at bat
Oracle and Google’s lawyers argued their infamous, long-running API copyright lawsuit at the Supreme Court last week. If you haven’t listened to a legal “oral argument” before, this might be an interesting way to start:
Warning: This is high-level legal conversation. If you don’t follow exactly what’s going on, it’s not you, it’s the law. Let it wash over you a bit, and enjoy the dynamics of the back-and-forth.
Some relevant snippets from the United States’ Copyright Act:
A “computer program” is a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result.
United States Code, Title 17, Section 100 (excerpt)
In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
United States Code, Title 17, Section 102(b)
And some Wiki links, for extra credit:
- Merger Doctrine
- Idea-Expression Dichotomy
- Baker v. Selden
- Computer Associates v. Altai
- Feist v. Rural Telephone Service
- Harper and Row v. Nation Enterprises
- Structure, Sequence, and Organization
Your thoughts and feedback are always welcome by e-mail.