US Supreme Court rules Google's use of Java SE API is 'fair use'
Today, the US Supreme Court settled, in Google's favor, an important part of the long-running lawsuit between Oracle and Google over the latter's use of the Java SE API in Android. The ruling determined that while indeed Oracle had a valid copyright over the Java API, that Google's use of that API falls under Fair Use. The result negates Oracle's ability to win damages from Google, but more importantly validates programmers freedom to reuse API definitions. An Oracle win in this case would have had a chilling effect on programmer freedom.
