Robert Pogson

We saw in SCOG v World that Boies made a huge bunch of incorrect filings/refilings and revised filings. They tried it again but with a judge that wants Oracle v Google to run on rails (steel rails, like a railroad).

Today Google raised the point that on Monday, Oracle said their “work” was a collective work. That’s in the registrations filed for their copyrights.

“Judge: But Oracle says it’s a collective work.
Google: Section 101 defines them.
Judge: True, it does say that.
Judge: Is a collective work defined, too?
Google: Just above.
Judge: What is your point again?
Google: With copyright of a collective work, you only get coverage of the individual parts if you are the author.
Judge: This came from the copyright registrations?
Google: Both of them.”

So, Oracle has provided no proof that it actually owns the copyrights it is suing over… and Google gets to file a Rule 50 motion (“RULE 50. JUDGMENT AS A MATTER OF LAW IN A JURY TRIAL; RELATED MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL; CONDITIONAL RULING

(2) Motion. A motion for judgment as a matter of law may be made at any time before the case is submitted to the jury. The motion must specify the judgment sought and the law and facts that entitle the movant to the judgment.”)

Here’s an example from the registration of JSE 2:

See, where it says, “Derivative work or compilation

Prior work by claimant and licensed-in components”

So, Oracle has made its case to the court and neglected to prove ownership of the parts of Java SE that they wrote. Big OOPS!

Oracle registered a “compilation” but argued in court about a “collective work”:
“A “collective work” is a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology, or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole.
A “compilation” is a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term “compilation” includes collective works.”

see Title 17 USC sec 101

They cannot claim Google has violated their copyright without proving they own the part that Google used.

So, Boies and company, besides having a weak case has a case with the bottom missing, just like they did with SCOG v World when it turned out SCOG did not own the copyrights. In addition, USPTO has just accepted one of the patents that Oracle has agreed with prejudice would not be claimed…

After the $millions spent on this spectacle and how weak the case was revealed to be, how embarrassing it must be to find the dots and crosses were not made. One wonders how the judge will rule. Can the case be fixed up? Will it require a retrial because the arguments presented to the jury were all wrong? Will Oracle and Google decide to cut losses and come to an agreement?

This case has been a huge lie from the beginning and the more we got to know the shabbier it became. Oracle should have known better to start and Boies and Co. should have set them straight. Technology is not a matter for the courts. People should just get on with making better stuff and quit wasting resources.

I finished the welding this morning and took “her” for a spin. I loaded up 400 pounds of patio stones and drove over loose earth. The tracks were about 1 inch deep. On settled or packed earth there was hardly a mark. I tried a gentle up-slope with no problem. The old John Deere still purrs after 26 years. This thing will haul the little woman’s boulders well. I doubt any will be over 1000 pounds.

The last welding job was a bit silly. The draw bar I bought had too large pin holes so I filled them in and drilled them out for the pins I had on hand. I wish I had my drill press. It’s still at the old workshop. I did the drilling with a cordless Makita drill/driver, a fine beast. It took about 1.5 power-packs to do it. I recharged the first and carried on with the second. I gave the motor a cooling period every minute or so and kept the tip well-oiled. It needed to run at low RPM for the 1/2 inch hole so I ran it unloaded to cool. I had a little problem when I tried to drill through and caught the drill bit on a rough edge. I had to file the hole open. On the second hole, I drilled through from both sides and met in the middle. That was a lot cleaner.

The wagon was built to move boulders but it will have all kinds of uses around the yard and shop. The 8 inch wheels roll very smoothly on concrete, gravel, earth and, I hope, on grass sooner or later. I would show you a picture, but it is a bit ugly, being welded out of nothing but T-bars, and it’s not yet painted. I am old but I must still have a bit of 5-year-old in me, because it brings to mind a little wagon I had as a child. Whoever invented the wheel was a genius.

As if the current share were not large enough, HTC and FaceBook are rumoured to be getting together on a smart phone to be released in time for Christmas. FaceBook has a huge opportunity for advertising the new gadget. Rumour has it that it will run Android/Linux. Between all the OEMs making Android/Linux smart phones, service providers promoting them and “Big Brothers” like Samsung, Google and now FaceBook promoting them globally, no consumer will be able to hide from Android/Linux smart phones. Share of shipments now is well over 50%. The only question is how large the share will become. There does not seem to be any limit yet. At the present rate of growth everyone on the planet could have one within a few years. Will people ever have a need for two?

The rumoured deal will increase HTC’s share but it will also make Android/Linux smart phones ubiquitous in the mind-share of many users of the Internet. This competition to sell Android/Linux units will be good for consumers with lowered prices and increasing variety, quite a different case from that other monopoly that was formed by coercion.

see Digitimes – HTC, Facebook jointly developing smartphone, say sources