Assuming the judge grants Google's motion for mistrial on the
entirety of Question 1, then API/SSO copyrightability won't enter into damages
for this trial at all.
I don't think the judge will give Google
a mistrial. I think he will instead rule that APIs cannot be copyrighted. The
movement for a mistrial does two things: it gives Google an out if the judge
rules APIs can be copyrighted (which I think is extremely unlikely) and it also
gives Google an out (I think) if a higher court overturns Alsup on API
copyrightability.
One paper reported that Alsup said he would only rule
on copyrightability if Oracle won the jury decision. I don't remember seeing
this anywhere else but I could have easily missed it. I wonder if the
newspaper got something garbled from their reporter's tweets. I've felt that
Alsup has been planning to rule on copyrightability all along but I have no
evidence to back this up. If there is any evidence one way or the other of
Alsup's intent, I'd like to see it.
---
Our job is to remind ourselves
that there are more contexts
than the one we’re in now — the one that we think is reality.
-- Alan Kay [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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