With all their tap dancing around what the work as a whole is, Oracle tripped up
and got their foot stuck in the door.
I wonder what would be the best way
for Google to exploit this? IIRC, the judge didn't think it would be a good
idea for Google to place all their eggs in this basket. OTOH, it might be hard
for Google to resist letting the jury know about this major slip up. I would
suggest they use it as supporting evidence of what they've been saying all
along: Oracle made this all up to cash in on Google's hard work.
If
Oracle's claims were true that these copyrights are the crown jewels of their
purchase of Sun and that these copyrights are worth beeellions of dollars then
you would think they would have taken a little better care of them. This looks
like some last minute slapdash amateur stunt, not the crown jewels of a
mega-corporation. Something is not right with the picture Oracle is trying to
present. But this slip up fits perfectly with what Google has been saying all
along.
Google could tell the jury: "sure, you could decide in our favor
based only on this titanic technicality but we would prefer that you decide in
our favor based on the facts, or lack thereof, that have been presented in this
case." If they can also highlight some of the obvious lies told under oath by
Oracle, they should have a pretty good case. Ellison got caught in an obvious
lie. McMealy also lied when he said Schwartz' blog was not official. I wonder
if it is too late for Google to point that out?
There is also a lot of
obvious evidence that Oracle has not shown the jury. If their story were true
then there should have been emails and other communications between Sun and
Google over licensing issues starting right after November 12, 2007 when the
Android SDK was released. The code was open for everyone to see. Why did Google
make it open for everyone to see if it contained stolen property? Why didn't
Sun immediately sue Google to stop Google from giving Sun's precious IP to the
world? Why is there no written documentation of Sun's outrage or even of an
attempt to negotiate a license? I guess we will just have to take their word
for it that their story is true. I've got a feeling the name SCOracle is going
to stick.
I'm sure glad we don't have to wait until the end of the entire
trial to hear the jury's verdict on the copyright claims. This is all very
exciting.
--- 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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