Java’s Jarndyce and Jarndyce ends

Google versus Oracle has been Silicon Valley’s Jarndyce and Jarndyce — a legal battle fought out over more than a decade that generated far more in legal fees than interest from the public.

Two fabulously wealthy tech titans in conflict, with Google finally winning on Monday, should not garner much sympathy for either party, but the issues at stake were key to the future of software development.

The Supreme Court ruled by six judges to two that Google’s copying of more than 11,000 lines of Java code in developing its Android operating system represented “fair use” of the software, which was owned and developed by Sun Microsystems before the company was acquired by Oracle in 2010.

Sun had taken an open-standards approach to Java, which was a set of programming tools designed to work on all computers, irrespective of their operating systems. It had welcomed Android’s early use of Java as the free, open-source operating system was developed for smartphones. But Oracle took a different view, as its licensing of Java to handset makers came under threat from Android’s increasing adoption.

Imagine if Google had licensed Java back then, as Android chief Andy Rubin had suggested — Oracle could have made a fortune from the hundreds of millions of devices using it that followed, although that licensing fee could also have hindered the uptake of Android.

Android’s rapid growth was also boosted by its use of Java, bringing on board a software development community already familiar with the language. It meant they had readily available building blocks to create apps and did not have to reinvent the wheel to take software in a different direction.

The Supreme Court’s decision on fair use reflects this. It said Google had used “only those lines of code that were needed to allow programmers to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative program”. Analysts at Stifel said today the decision “enables smaller companies to innovate by focusing on building upon existing code rather than starting their own code”.

However, it’s murkier than that. As Oracle told it, Google didn’t want to make Android fully compatible with other Java-based platforms, which taking a licence would have required. This reminds me of covering the US versus Microsoft monopoly case in the 1990s, where Java’s creator argued it had been tailored for the Windows operating system to make it incompatible with Java’s open standards.

So there is a proprietary aspect to Google’s actions and, as Huawei will testify, its influence over Android can be ruinous to other companies’ smartphone ambitions.

Google has won this one, but this defiant statement from Oracle contains a little more than sour grapes: “The Google platform just got bigger and market power greater — the barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower. They stole Java and spent a decade litigating as only a monopolist can. This behaviour is exactly why regulatory authorities around the world and in the United States are examining Google’s business practices.”

The Internet of (Five) Things

1. SoftBank sets store by robots
SoftBank has struck a $2.8bn deal for a 40 per cent stake in Norwegian warehouse automation company AutoStore, in the latest addition to its web of investments in ecommerce and robotics. Lex says SoftBank has a habit of investing in global companies chasing the same prize, with stakes here also in US warehouse robotics company Berkshire Grey and Indian logistics start-up Delhivery. 

2. Supper’s ready
Supper, the high-end food delivery business, is seeking to raise £5m in a private equity-backed funding round, just days after delivery app Deliveroo lost billions in market value within minutes of listing in London (Goldman Sachs bought about £75m in Deliveroo shares to prop up trading, we can reveal). Tim Bradshaw profiled Will Shu, Deliveroo’s shaken but undeterred founder, at the weekend.

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3. Seedrs fears about start-up propagation
The boss of crowdfunding platform Seedrs has warned that the UK competition watchdog risks stifling government ambitions to create a booming tech sector after it blocked his merger with rival Crowdcube last month on the grounds it might restrict competition and result in higher fees and less innovation. 

4. Cyber attacks and scams intensify
An unusual alliance of big banks and telecoms companies is trying to convince tech giants to help them fight financial fraud by joining their Stop Scams UK group. More prosecutions involving cryptocurrency scams are expected to reach the UK courts, the director of the Crown Prosecution Service has said. The number of cyber attacks hitting critical French businesses jumped fourfold last year

5. Witchcraft casts a spell on TikTok users
On Instagram, 10 of the most popular witch accounts have more than three million followers between them, with half of those added in the past year. On TikTok, videos with the hashtag #witchtok have racked up more than 11bn views — 2bn more than #Biden. Sid Venkataramakrishnan looks at how to perform a hex on an ex and other online spells.

Tech tools — Museum Alive

If you’re still home-schooling over Easter, this might bring to life any lesson about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. An extension of the award-winning David Attenborough’s Natural History Museum Alive documentary, this alluring app includes three Augmented Reality scenes, which place the creatures in their habitats on any flat surface in the home, with the ability to pan around and zoom in on the 3D experience. As the app makers describe it: “Meet the bizarre Opabinia, a 300 million-year-old fishlike creature with five eyes and a trunk. Fly around your room with the early pioneering flying dinosaur, Diamorphodon, as it hunts down a fluttering dragonfly. Spy on a fearsome sabre-toothed tiger, Smilodon, as the deadly animal stalks its prey.”

There is commentary from the great man himself and lots of background information and video segments that allow a deeper dive into the different animals. The £2.99 app is still being improved and I found it a little buggy, having trouble with the sound on the iPhone app and finding the AR features freeze on the new iPad version, but hopefully, these will be ironed out through updates.