Tech Report: Oracle CEO Ellison Discusses Google Suit, Steve Jobs At Tech Conference
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— A federal judge in San Francisco has undermined a key aspect of Oracle's lawsuit against Google over its Android operating system.
Oracle had sued Google over its use of application programming interfaces (API).
The jury couldn't agree on whether Google was covered by fair use protections, but on Thursday a judge ruled that the use of API's is not even covered by copyright law in the first place.
KCBS Tech Report:
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison did make some comments Wednesday at All Things Digital's D-10 Conference.
Ellison said it's all about copyrights. I think he was crowing because Oracle had won on the issue where the jury found that Google had violated Oracle's copyright. But the issue of whether or not that was fair use was not resolved.
In light of what the judge is now saying, I think Ellison would have some different things to say because as I understand it, the judge is throwing the whole thing out.
Ellison also spoke about his close friend Steve Jobs.
The Oracle CEO recalled when Jobs was designing the Apple stores he had a mock-up of one set up in a warehouse. He would drag Ellison out there day in and day out and they would talk about every single attention to detail.
Ellison also talked about when Jobs was working on Pixar movies, he would come over and Jobs would make him sit and watch the films, once again going over the details of things like how the shadows were rendered.
The stories are another validation of Jobs' attention to detail and how he would micromanage, which is why some people say Apple products and Pixar movies are so amazing.
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