Java: A Child of Two Parents — And There’s a $9 Billion Custody Fight

A lesson for any company … get your software licences sorted out

Google is currently facing a fine of $9 billion in damages for breaching the Java copyright and has taken it to the Supreme Court [here]:

For Google the fight is not just about the damages, but on the future of software development [here]:

Introduction

Java is a like a child stuck in-between two dueling partners who want custody of it. It used to have one parent … the great and much missed Sun Microsystems, but now has two: Oracle, and Google. One of its new parents decided one day to clone the child, and make lots of them .. in fact billions of them. And that child was named Android.

In 2016, Oracle lost a fight for damages of $9 billion from Google in a breach of its APIs, but came back at Google in 2018 on IP breaches and won the case. Google now must feel that they should…