Schmidt Testifies Android Did Not Use Sun's IP 239
CWmike writes "Google built a 'clean room' version of Java and did not use Sun's intellectual property, Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, testified in court Tuesday. Schmidt said its use of Java in Android was 'legally correct.' On this day seven of the trial, Schmidt gave the jury a brief history of Java, describing its release as 'an almost religious moment.' He told the jury that Google had once hoped to partner with Sun to develop Android using Java, but that negotiations broke off because Google wanted Android to be open source, and Sun was unwilling to give up that much control over Java. Instead, Schmidt said, Google created the 'clean room' version of Java that didn't use Sun's protected code. Its engineers invented 'a completely different approach' to the way Java worked internally, Schmidt testified."
Like Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:"Clean Room" implementation (Score:3, Interesting)
So Schmidt might be right. It could have been 'legally correct.' But it sure wasn't a clean room implementation.
Re:"Clean Room" implementation (Score:4, Interesting)
Their second, and to them very important, goal is to prove that Google willfully infringed, and benefited a lot from it. They want a big payment as a result of this.
I believe the focus on the TCK license is an attempt to get bigger damages.
Re:Like Linux? (Score:4, Interesting)
Linux is written to the POSIX standard. The POSIX standard is copyright IEEE and the Open Group. They have been clear that they won't sue people for implementing the standard (though, they also own a trademark which is a separate issue...). Additionally, the ability to implement this was pretty much covered by the BSD lawsuits in the 80s, which said that *this* API could be implemented (not that *all* APIs could be implemented).
I don't know for sure, but I don't think that the issue of blocking the implementation of APIs has been tested. POSIX is a special case. SCO was *clearly* full of shit. It is much less clear wrt to Oracle and Java from my position. The strange thing is (as others have mentioned) that Oracle seems not to be pushing the API copyright issue and are instead claiming that Google needed a TCK license. Things may change later, though.
Re:mod up (Score:5, Interesting)
Schmidt has dirty paws. I would not be surprised if this behavior is why Sergey Brin had to oust him. Name any market Google has created? Search? Mail? Maps? Online Docs? It's all polished implementations of other peoples well proven ideas. Their finest and purest idea was their first one: search ranking by citation.
AdWords. I'm unaware of any prior system that did automatic auctions for specific search terms. As far as Google's success, AdWords was equally as important as search, since it's the financial basis for the entire company. If you read some of the early history of Google their original sales methods were human centric, slow and no better than anyone else. AdWords started the flood of cash.
"Google wanted Android to be open source"?! (Score:3, Interesting)
"Google wanted Android to be open source, and Sun was unwilling to give up that much control over Java."
What?! Java already was open source, GPLv2. Since 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Java_implementations#Sun.27s_November_2006_announcement [wikipedia.org]
It must be something else then, or what am I missing here?
Re:"Clean Room" implementation (Score:4, Interesting)
Equitable and promissory estoppel: Sun helped project Harmony and was deeply involved in it's creation, to the extent that it infringed, it had permission to do so. Sun definitely received benefit from this arrangement as parts of Sun's own implementation were contributed, as a result of Harmony, by Google.
Re:"Google wanted Android to be open source"?! (Score:4, Interesting)
..One point if the GPLv2 does not cover US Patents in Europe but it does cover US Patents in the US ... what is the problem?
US Software patents are covered in the US - but implicitly granted
US Software patents are meaningless in Europe
Europe does not have Software Patents ...
So this is about Copyright and not Patents ...and nothing was copied?
Re:Clean room? Not according to Joshua Bloch (Score:2, Interesting)
Wow, talk about missing the forest by the trees. Did you even read that article? The point was not to single out the small piece of code as a smoking gun, but as an example of a lack of discipline in setting up the so-called "clean room" environment, which seems to cast the entire endeavor into question:
Nice ad hominem attack there, Mr. Anonymous Coward.