U.S. Supreme Court could reshape industry with ruling on Google, Oracle

Oracle says it is entitled to at least $8.8 billion in damages. The case, which the court will resolve by July, promises to reshape the U.S. legal protections for software code, particularly the interfaces that let programs and devices communicate with one another. Google contends the appeals court ruling would make it harder to use interfaces to develop new applications. The ruling "has upended the computer industry's long-standing expectation that developers are free to use software interfaces to build new computer programs," Google argued. The appeals court decision reversed a jury finding that Google's copying was a legitimate "fair use" of Oracle's Java programming language.