Now, claiming that your copyrights have been violated is actionable at law. The Supreme Court let stand a decision that APIs are copyrightable (!), but Google still has a fair use defense that has not been ruled on.
If Oracle wins, Google's going to change the API for Android. Java will become less relevant, not more. Oracle may get some money for damages, but Java will lose.
If Oracle wins (including the inevitable appeals of the final judgment), Google is going to have to either stop using the Java APIs or reach a licensing deal with Oracle (or, I suppose, buy Oracle outright, strip out and keep the IP that is valuable to Google's key strategic efforts -- like, e.g., the Java copyrights -- and then spin Oracle back out and sell it [0].)
[0] Let's call this the "MoMo shuffle".
No they are going to pay Oracle, they don't have much choice. They should have bought Sun years ago but Google was too greedy and thought it could get away with anything.
Disclaimer: This is just my opinion. I don't speak for Google.
Now if developers start moving away from Oracle tools like they have in the past with Open Office, and I'm sure they will in the future thanks to their insistence on copyrighting APIs and keeping their software insecure and not allowing anyone else to look at it - well then, that would be no one but Oracle's own fault.
Agreed, but how much damage to society can the Oracle-asaurus do while thrashing around in the tarpit before it dies?
Currently, the copyright laws seem to benefit large, deep pocket players, not society as a whole. Oracle-the-Corporation can certainly use copyright law to inflict a lot of damage on everyone else while it spoils its own reputation and poisons markets & etc.
