Brief 6: Copyright and Fair Use Taken to the Extreme

     Copyright and fair use laws can be a bit of a blurred line in media today. Fair use "permits copying under limited circumstances," this can include content used for educational purposes and if no profit is being made. This can leave certain copyright lawsuits mildly open for interpretation. A company that is currently undergoing a copyright lawsuit is Google and Oracle.
     

     Oracle "is asking Google the largest copyright verdict ever over the alleged software copyright infringement" at 9.3 billion dollars. Over 4 years ago "Google was accused of using the Java APIs without consent and that they were purportedly using a protected property in order to build its version of the market-leading mobile OS, Android". Google and Oracle first went to court in 2012 and the jury concluded that they were "unable to determine whether Google's use of Java was ensured by fair use". Google and Oracle are set to go on trial again on May 9 this year. Oracle is said to be asking for 9.3 billion in the upcoming trial, however Google "assessed damages are close to 100 million only." In fact, "the jury had found Google infringing only 37 APIs, which [is] a small fraction of the company's Android codebase". Copyright laws are coming into place and they state that "damages can only be claimed for profits that are inferable from the infringing code". This is a huge lawsuit and with the copyright and fair use laws in play, the outcome will be interesting to see. 

     Copyright violations can be a serious crime, this lawsuit is a prime example. The numbers the companies are throwing around start at 100 million and reach a staggering 9.3 billion. The copyright and fair use laws are in place to protect companies and people from the theft of their material for others gain, as well as protecting people who are using others content harmlessly. The moral of the story is that you should always double check that you either ask permission for content or give credit when its due, you also need to know your rights under copyright and fair use laws to prevent a nasty lawsuit similar to the one Google is facing. 

Articles Cited: 
(http://en.yibada.com/articles/112632/20160330/oracle-vs-google-demands-9-3-billion-copyright-lawsuit-against.htm)