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Could Oracle’s Lawsuit Hurt Android Developers?

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Another day another Google lawsuit, although this time its an actual tech company instead of an entertainment corporation.

One one side is Google, whose Android platform represents the new world order for mobile devices while on the other side is Oracle, a company that has seen better days and now sees Android as their personal ATM machine.

Oracle has filed a lawsuit against Google, charging that its Android phone software infringes Oracle patents and copyrights related to Java, Oracle said Thursday.

“In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement,” Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement.

The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and seeks a jury trial. (Computer World) [Read more…]

Originally posted on August 13, 2010 @ 1:23 pm

YouTube Knocks Out Viacom

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Today is a good day for Google. Not only are Android phones selling faster than expected, but it looks like the courts have dismissed Viacom’s lawsuit against YouTube.

Today, the court granted our motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube. This means that the court has decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement. We’re extremely gratified by this decision and the now established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are immune from liability when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them protect their rights online. (Official YouTube Blog) [Read more…]

Originally posted on June 23, 2010 @ 4:52 pm

Google Books under attack from Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, indies

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Oh dear. It seems as if everyone, from the big boys to the independent publisher, is against Google when it comes to the Google Books project.

google-books-rhino

New bedfellows Microsoft and Yahoo, along with book-turned-Aladdin’s-cave seller Amazon, are set to join the Internet Archive and library associations to oppose Google’s plan to put millions of books online and make them freely searchable.

A serious problem is that Google is effectively saying to authors and publishers “you’ve automatically opted in unless you explicitly opt out”. [Read more…]

Originally posted on August 21, 2009 @ 5:48 am

Torvalds plays pro bono lawyer to Linux community

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linus torvaldsLinux superstar Linus Torvalds generously gives free legal advice to ward off threats coming from Microsoft on patent infringement. He finds it ironic that a monopolist like Microsoft would run after smaller players over patents.

I think Microsoft really sees patents as a marketing thing and I think that for two reasons: … I don’t think Microsoft has ever sued anybody over patents. They have been sued by other people, but I don’t think they’ve … generally used patents as a weapon. But they’re perfectly happy to use anything at all as fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the marketplace. Patents are just one thing where they say, ‘Hey, isn’t this convenient? We can use this as a PR force.”

Well, the man has a point but his lack of legal expertise will not help in this situation. The rift between Microsoft and Linux started when both parties partnered to distribute Novell SUSE Linux and exchange know-how to promote interoperability. Unfortunately, the ambitious project led to patent disputes

Via InformationWeek

Originally posted on February 6, 2008 @ 6:55 am