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Jury Deadlock | 451 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Jury Deadlock
Authored by: PJ on Thursday, May 03 2012 @ 07:29 PM EDT
I don't think they are necessarily deadlocked.
The instructions were, in my view, confusing.
It's hardly surprising that they are confused.
For example, the judge tells them, Assume that
SSO is copyrightable. What message did that
send, even though he added that he'd actually
make that decision and they were to assume it
just for their deliberations.

It only makes sense if they were told that this
was to make the appeal simpler.

All they know, I suspect, is that the judge
seems to think the SSO is copyrightable, enough
to tell them to assume it. They don't know
the law, so they're likely to assume more than
he intended.

Then the answers to their questions seemed, as
Google said, to put Oracle's finger too heavily
on the answers given. If I got the answer we
saw tweeted by the journalists, I'd be mighty
confused.

Of course, we have to wait for the transcripts
to be sure, but the judge seems to me to be
pressing for Oracle to win something. He's used
to protecting copyright owners, after all, so
there is a built-in bent.

He is a very fine judge. But I don't think he's
weighting the needs of software sufficiently, and
I think he goofed in not ruling on the APIs before
the case went to trial, because the poor jurors
can't possibly know where up is.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Running a red light -what sort of analogy is that?!
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 03 2012 @ 11:02 PM EDT
I just spotted this tweet:
@BrandonBailey
Judge excuses jury for day, but they're coming back tomorrow.
Alsup: "This is not as simple as who ran the red light."

That is so misleading in itself. Especially, in this case,
when it is not even clear there was a red light (in this case
copyrightable APIs).

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Golly, give them time
Authored by: mexaly on Friday, May 04 2012 @ 12:26 AM EDT
I was on a jury that delivered a verdict (among other panels). We convicted the
drug seller on the first vote. Still, it took more than half a day. We
carefully read the jury instructions together, and made sure each juror felt
they understood. We didn't have any disagreements. Still, for twelve people,
to do their duty carefully, it takes time.

---
IANAL, but I watch actors play lawyers on high-definition television.
Thanks to our hosts and the legal experts that make Groklaw great.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Groklaw © Copyright 2003-2013 Pamela Jones.
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