Supreme Court hears arguments in Google-Oracle copyright dispute News
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Supreme Court hears arguments in Google-Oracle copyright dispute

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in cases concerning copyright and personal jurisdiction issues.

Google v. Oracle, involves a $9 billion copyright suit. The suit originated several years ago when Google created the mobile software Android using part of Oracle’s programming language. While Google argued that allowing the company to copy the language encourages technological innovation, Oracle asserts that Google did not have a right to use their copyrighted material. Interestingly, Google used only 0.1 percent of Oracle’s 15 million lines of code, which they have justified using “fair use” copyright rules. Additionally, creating Android without the programming language could have cost Google billions of dollars.

Ford Motor v. Montana Eighth Judicial District addresses the issue of relatedness in personal jurisdiction. Although the Supreme Court avoided hearing personal jurisdiction issues from 1990-2010, Ford Motor is only the latest in a recent spate of jurisdiction cases. Here, the court must decide in what court a plaintiff can sue a company whose vehicle killed a driver in Montana but was assembled in Kentucky and sold in Washington (before being sold again in Oregon). According to Ford, the “relate to” standard for personal jurisdiction has a distinctly causal element so that the company must have taken action with the cars involved in the accident in the location where the accident took place. Although it conducts business in the state where the accident took place, Ford argued that this business did not cause the accident. The plaintiffs simply argued that the company should be held liable if it sells vehicles in the state where the accident occurred.

Oral arguments by phone are scheduled to continue by phone next Tuesday at 10 AM.

THIS DAY @ LAW

US Supreme Court ruled Indians not US citizens

On November 3, 1884, the US Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that John Elk, an American Indian who had tried to vote in a federal election in Omaha, Nebraska, was not a US citizen entitled to the protection of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution. Native Americans became eligible for citizenship in 1887 under the Dawes Act, but only in 1924, under the Indian Citizenship Act, were all Native Americans born in the US made citizens.

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On November 3, 1783, the last public execution took place at Tyburn Gallows in London, when John Austin was hanged for highway robbery. From the hanging of William Fitz Osburn in 1196 until Austin's execution, Tyburn served as London's primary location for public executions.

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