Name: What the Google-Oracle Lawsuit Could Mean for Developers
Uploaded: 2016-05-09
Duration: 2 min 43 s
Description: And why there is so much at stake

[ NOISE ] Oracle and Google are in court over whether one company can use the other's code. Robert, is this going to be bad for developers? It will be a sad day if Oracle wins I'll tell you that much. Yeah. That's because we're not just talking about code here. We're talking about a specific kind of code called Application programming interfaces, APIs, these are the bridge builders of the computing world. It allows you to take one piece of software and connect it up to another piece of software. The connective tissue of the Cloud. Exactly. Sure. But now, if you have Oracle slapping copyright infringements on programmers, You're gonna have a chilling effect in the software industry, that's going to be horribly damaging to it. You think this will be horribly damaging compared to everybody just stealing everybody else's code and not paying each other? Come on. Let's focus on the core issue, whether or not one company Company can transform the use of, or just use another company's code. I mean, let's say you're Oracle, right? You own Java, it's pretty good, you picked it up with Sun Microsystems. And Google comes along and says, we're gonna use 37 of your APIs to build what becomes Android, the world's most popular mobile operating system. You don't get a dime from that, is that okay? Hold up, right there because we're missing one major factor here and that is that Java is Free Andrew, it is free, F- R- E- E free, doesn't cost a dime, don't have to pay Oracle a cent. Yeah? So why should Google have to pay Oracle 9 billion dollars as Oracle wants in this lawsuit? If you have all these programmers who now are gonna have to pay Oracle licensing fees for their APIs that is just going to be a terrible situation. And by the way, this isn't just Google that wants this You've got Yahoo, Red Hat, and even HP lining up behind Google, backing them up. You know who disagrees with all of this? Not just Oracle, but Microsoft, EMC, NetApp, I mean we got a house divided in the tech industry over this, and for good reason, okay. So let me use another analogy. Let's say you take a photograph, right? I take that from you. I borrow it, okay? I go screen it on some t- shirts, i go sell them out profit and keep all of that money. You don't get a dime. Is that cool? No. Not in this country. In the United States you can't do that. Your photograph is legally protected. You have to give me permission to do that. And you probably get a cut out of it, right? That's the argument here is that Oracle wants to argue the same thing with code. Andrew, Andrew, look. You and I are both journalists, we're both reporters. We full well understand the use of fair use copyrighted material. I can take some of your writing, you can take some of my writing. Some. And it's Totally okay. I think that Google's use of Oracle's APIs is totally reasonable in this situation. That's a fair point. For one show that's legally protected, but free to watch. Come to fortune. com for more Tech Debate. [ SOUND ]