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Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom(ars technica)Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom(ars technica)Posted May 8, 2012 15:47 UTC (Tue) by tseaver (subscriber, #1544)Parent article: Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom (ars technica)
The really weird thing here is that the question of fair use is deemed a
"matter of fact", to be settled by a jury, while the question of whether an API is copyrightable is a "matter of law", to be settled by the judge: they both require similar depth of understanding of copyright law.
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Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom(ars technica) Posted May 8, 2012 17:59 UTC (Tue) by SEMW (guest, #52697) [Link]
It does seem slightly odd. In England juries in civil trials have been abolished except in cases where you want juries as guards against an authoritarian criminal justice system (malicious prosecution or false imprisonment), fraud, or defamation: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/54/section/69 .
Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom(ars technica) Posted May 8, 2012 18:53 UTC (Tue) by wahern (subscriber, #37304) [Link]
A jury is required in this case because of the 7th Amendment to the United States Constitution:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_Amendment_to_the_Uni...
This makes the United States the last country, I believe, to keep juries for civil cases, and extremely difficult to change. Most of the individual states still have juries for civil cases, too, even though this is usually not required by the state's constitution.
Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom(ars technica) Posted May 8, 2012 18:54 UTC (Tue) by wahern (subscriber, #37304) [Link]
I meant the _right_ to a jury trial is required. The right is waivable at the discretion of the defendant.
Google guilty of infringement in Oracle trial; future legal headaches loom(ars technica) Posted May 8, 2012 18:47 UTC (Tue) by wahern (subscriber, #37304) [Link]
The jury doesn't decide what constitutes Fair Use. The judge describes the legal elements of Fair Use, and how they apply in the case. It's the jury's task to decide whether the facts fit the elements, including whether they believe the facts as presented by Google.
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