Copyright Alliance, Others Back Oracle's Appeal of Google Case to Federal Circuit

The Copyright Alliance is supporting member Oracle in the company’s appeal to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals of a San Francisco federal jury’s 2016 verdict that Google’s fair use defense for its use of the coding and names contained in Oracle's Java application programming interface (API) technology in its Android mobile operating system qualifies as a transformative fair use (see 1605260067). Oracle argued in its opening brief earlier this month that it believes the Federal Circuit should overturn the San Francisco jury’s verdict because Judge William Alsup “repeatedly undermined Oracle's case” in a way that caused the jury to wrongly find in Google’s favor (see 1702130043). The San Francisco jury’s verdict “is deeply concerning for the artists, authors, software developers, and other creators who rely on the copyright laws to protect their livelihoods,” the CA said in an amicus brief: “In holding that Google’s use of Oracle’s API packages constituted fair use, the district court” erred in its fair use analysis. “The district court’s legal errors, if applied to other types of works, would be particularly problematic for small businesses and individuals, including many of the Copyright Alliance’s members,” the group said. Several other groups also filed amicus briefs on Oracle’s behalf, including BSA|The Software Alliance and the Competitive Carriers Association. MPAA, the Independent Film & Television Alliance and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists filed a joint brief for Oracle. RIAA and the Association of American Publishers filed for Oracle, as did a coalition of photographers’ groups led by the Digital Media Licensing Association.