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> Google copied these lines not because of their creativity or beauty but because they would allow programmers to bring their skills to a new smartphone computing environment.

Also known as compatibility and interoperability. I'm so happy to see that judges understand their importance.



> Also known as compatibility and interoperability.

Actually, not really. Both this ruling and the lower courts' rulings in the case operated under the strange assumption that Android was not interoperable with Oracle Java, leaving programmer familiarity as the only reason Google copied the APIs. For example, in the Federal Circuit ruling that the Supreme Court just overruled, they complain that Google "points to no Java apps that either pre-dated or post-dated Android that could run on the Android platform". True; but of course third-party libraries often can run on both Android and Oracle Java, and their importance seems to have been lost on everyone involved in the case... including Google's own lawyers.

Thankfully, Google won anyway, so any defendant in a future case who can make a better interoperability argument will be in an even stronger position.




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